An Amalgamated Halloween
by ordinaryguy2
Summary: Not wanting to face everyone in the tower after his name comes out of the Goblet, Harry wanders the halls of Hogwarts wondering how he can survive. Dobby hears and brings Harry to the Come-and-Go Room, which gives Harry an unexpected answer that also upturns several other plans. Dumbledore/Ron/Molly/Ginny bashing. HHr
1. Chapter 1

**One Amalgamated Halloween…**

**By Ordinaryguy2**

**1994, HALLOWEEN, HOGWARTS**

Harry Potter stormed through the halls of Hogwarts.

"I really hate Halloween!" he practically yelled, startling several of the portraits that hung in the hall.

"Why is it that every Halloween something has to pop up and mess with my life!"

He stopped at a window and looked out. He could see a line of people going up the dock to the Durmstrang ship floating on the Black Lake. Over to the right of the window Harry could just catch a glimpse of the Beauxbaton carriage, and it seemed like all the students were already inside.

"I can't believe I got dragged into this stupid tournament," he muttered to himself in the cold night air. "Professor Moody is probably right; someone is trying to kill me. Very publicly, too. And Dumbledore is making me participate anyway. Doesn't he know that just puts me at risk?"

He'd already gone to Gryffindor Tower. A few students had been out in the hall, mostly with romantic partners, though that did not stop them from giving him the evil eye. As Harry neared the portrait entrance, he spied Ron waiting there, sulking, as was his want when he was upset about something. Harry had wanted to just go in and maybe talk to Hermione and go to bed so he could hopefully put this day behind him. But Ron, instead of being mad at the situation Harry found himself in, the idiot accused him of cheating his way into the tournament and not helping him to do the same.

As if Harry really wanted in this death trap of a tournament. Ron was an idiot. And, at this moment at least, was not proving to be a very good friend.

Instead of going up to his bed or seeing Hermione, Harry went to cool off by walking through the corridors.

"How am I supposed to compete in this contest?" he complained out loud. "Fleur is a Veela! And Krum is… Krum! And then there is Cedric who is probably the top student of the school!"

Harry resumed his pacing. "According to Hermione, this whole contest was cancelled because of just how deadly it is. And if someone is trying to kill me, they are sure to sabotage me, making it even deadlier for me. I'm dead meat for sure."

There was a soft pop beside him, making Harry start to reach for his wand. He stopped when he recognized just who it was.

"The great Harry Potter sir must not give up!" exclaimed the worried house-elf who was twisting his ears. "The great Harry Potter Sir will do great things if he tries! Very great things!"

For a moment, Harry glared at the house-elf. "Dobby, did you put my name in the Goblet of Fire?"

Harry wouldn't put it past the somewhat demented house-elf. In his Second Year, Dobby had gone to great lengths to try and keep him from Hogwarts. Who knows what the house-elf would do if he wanted the '_great Harry Potter sir_' to prove just how great he was to the rest of the school?

The house-elf looked hurt at the accusation. "Dobby has not done such a thing. Dobby does not know who put the great Harry Potter Sir's name in the burning magic cup."

"Sorry, Dobby," Harry said regretfully, hanging his head for thinking that about the house-elf, though Harry did feel he had reason to suspect him after all Dobby had put him through during his Second Year. "I'm rather overwhelmed right now. I don't know what to think. According to Dumbledore and the judges, I've got to participate. If I don't, I would lose my magic."

Dobby's mouth hung open in horror at the thought of Harry Potter losing his magic. "What does the great Harry Potter Sir need to prepare himself?"

Harry hadn't really thought about preparing himself. He'd been too busy ranting and raving to even consider it. If he hadn't run into Ron, then right now he'd probably be joined with Hermione as she put together a huge curriculum for him to undertake to get him ready for the tournament.

"I need someone who can help me get the skills I need to survive this tournament and take down those that are against me. I need someone who can help me be a person who can get through all of this alive… and whole."

Dobby paused as an idea came to him. "Dobby thinks he know an answer! Yes! Yes! Dobby does!" Taking Harry's hand, Dobby began to pull him down the hall and on to another.

Soon, after going up some stairs, and dodging around a suit of armor that had evidently been cursed to kick whoever walks by, Dobby had Harry standing in front of a very bizarre portrait of a knight trying to teach a few trolls how to ballet.

"The come-and-go room!" Dobby said excitedly. "It can give you help you be needing!"

Harry glanced down the hall both ways. There was no door near them, but that didn't necessarily matter since this was a magical castle. "Um, is this room behind the painting?"

Dobby smiled in amusement and shook his head, sending his ears flapping around. "No, no, no. You must be walking down and back again three times. You must be thinking about what you are needing for the room to help the great Harry Potter Sir."

The boy winced at the constant honorific the house-elf kept giving him. He took a few steps forward before pausing to think of just what it was that he needed again. "Ok," he quietly said to himself as he began pacing. "I need to meet with someone who can help me get the, uh, abilities I need to survive the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I need to be strong enough to face whatever comes at me. I need someone who can help me get through the tournament alive." He continues to recite his mantra softly as he paced. Finally, as he completed his third trip, a round doorway appeared in the wall with wisps of vapor emanating from within.

"That's ominous," he said. He glanced down at Dobby. "You are sure this is safe?"

The house-elf tilted his head as he twisted one of his ears nervously. "Dobby never said the come-and-go room was safe. Dobby said it would help the great Harry Potter Sir."

Harry grimaced. He knew the smart move would be to go get Hermione. Another part of him wanted to impress her by solving his problem without her help.

Stepping inside, he saw a glow on the far wall. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

"Where the hell am I?" said a male voice from the direction of the glowing section of wall.

Harry slowly continued forward, squinting through the haze. "Uh, who are you?"

There was a large chunk of yellow, glowing amber that stood seven feet high and just over eleven feet long. Harry couldn't tell how deep it was, but it was deep enough that if held a man inside of it.

"Hey, what's going on? Where am I?"

"Um, hello?"

"Who are you, kid? Did you put me in here?"

Harry's eyes widened in alarm. "Uh, maybe inadvertently."

The man sighed, leaning against his side the amber wall. "Ok, so this wasn't a kidnapping?"

"What? No!" Harry said, hoping that this wouldn't get him arrested.

The man was Caucasian with an American accent. He had dark hair and seemed to have been hiking.

"Ok," the man said, accepting what was happening with surprising ease. "I appeared to have teleported here. You have an England accent. Did I just go from Africa all the way to jolly ol' England?"

"You were in Africa?"

The man chuckled at that. "Yeah, keep up with me, kid. Now, am I in England?"

"Scotland, actually."

The man grinned. "And we are in a castle, right? Man, that brings back memories."

Harry fidgeted. "I-uh, I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

The man grinned, turned totally to face Harry, revealing that he bore an eyepatch over one eye. "Xander. Xander Harris."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief that the man seemed to have never heard of Harry before. In his opinion, this was going to make this easier to deal with.

The American then rapped the amber in front of him. "I don't suppose you know how to let me out?"

Harry winced. He glanced back for Dobby, but the house-elf was nowhere in sight. "Not really. This is my first time in this room."

"How about why I am here?"

Harry gave a guilty look and gave a quick explanation that ended up quite a bit longer when Xander started asking questions. Harry, not wanting to be rude to the man he had inadvertently kidnapped, answered everything, including much of his own history that was pertinent to everything.

"Wait, what year did you say this was?" Xander suddenly asked, startling Harry.

"It's 1994. It's actually Halloween. Nearly the day after Halloween."

"Damn. Time Travel," Xander muttered. He was now pacing in the strange amber prison like an animal. "Harry, you said this is a magical school, right? You've studied all sorts of magical phenomenon, right?"

"More or less, yeah," Harry answered with a shrug.

"Ok, have you heard reference to the Slayer before?"

Harry frowned. "No, sounds scary. Is it some kind of monster?"

Xander snorted. "Maybe for a couple days a month."

"The Slayer is a werewolf?"

"Different monthly problem," Xander deadpanned.

Realization caused Harry to blush. He didn't joke about such things. He'd seen Hermione hit Malfoy last spring. Harry wasn't about to give her a reason to take a swing at him.

"Slayers are always female," Xander said, realizing the younger guy was clearly uncomfortable about such subjects. "And if you haven't heard of Slayers in this magical school, then I probably got grabbed from an alternate universe. Do you have vampires here?"

Harry's head tilted in surprise at the question. "Well, I've heard about vampires. Only from books, really. I don't know if I ever met one, though some people joke that our potions professor must be one. From what information I have come across, vampires are mostly not like in the movies. They rarely hunt people. Just a sort of dead, but not dead sentient being that needs blood to consume and has to avoid sunlight. I think I even heard someone mentioning that their family lawyers were actually vampires."

Xander stared at the teen for a moment. "Definitely a different universe. What about Werewolves? Zombies? Demons?"

Harry frowned. "We have werewolves, though not all of them are bad."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, it's that way where I come from, too. By best friend's ex-boyfriend is a werewolf. He's a great musician, too."

"As for zombies," Harry continued, "I think the Wizarding World calls them Inferi, though maybe that is just a type of zombie, I really don't know. As for demons, I don't think they exist. At least I hope not."

Xander tapped the walls of his amber cage. "Hmm, with what you said about vampires, demons, as well as what you said before about needing a wand to focus your magic, I think it is safe to say that I am almost definitely a different universe."

Now it was Harry's turn to fidget. "Sorry about that. I didn't realize that this room would just pluck someone away from their lives. I just… I don't know."

Xander's curiosity started to rise. "What did you expect to happen?"

"Uh, that maybe I'd get a ghost coach or maybe a portrait advisor of one of the previous contestants."

"Wait? What do you mean by '_portrait advisor_'?"

It took a few minutes for Harry to fully explain how portraits in the Wizarding World were actually animated and had a pseudo-life of their own.

"Great Googally-Boogally! That- that could be such a nightmare in so many ways. But we are getting away from the subject."

"You mean getting you out of that amber chamber?" Harry said.

"No, I don't think that will work that way." He paused to scratch his chin, "Well, maybe it would, but I don't want to risk it." He traced a hand over the transparent amber wall again. "I think once I help you and you leave this magical room, I will go back to Africa with my team. And since I've had some dealing with magic and with wishes, I need to know the exact words you used to call me here."

Harry felt a catch in his throat. "I'll try."

"Do or do not, there is no try," Xander said in a low croaky voice.

"What?" Harry gave Xander a perplexed look.

"Sorry, it was a movie quote from where I'm from."

"I haven't seen many movies," Harry said with embarrassment. "I think I heard Dean and Shamus say something like that."

Xander felt a pang in his heart not being able to imagine growing up without movies, especially Star Wars. "Just tell me what you asked for, ok?"

Harry turned to the wall, hoping that not staring at Xander would help him to focus on what he'd said when calling this room into being.

"Well, I know I asked for someone to help me get the skill I needed to survive this contest. Also, to be able to fight those that are out to get me. That I needed someone who could help me be someone who can survive the tournament and everything that goes with it."

Meanwhile, Xander was running his hands over the ceiling. "Ok, that's everything, right? And for some reason you got me instead of a genie. Not that I recommend genies or anyone else handing out wishes."

"Uh, ok," replied the confused teen.

"Right then, let's get to it." The one-eyed man sat down on the floor and crossed his legs. He rested his hands on his kneecaps and closed his remaining eye. "Ok, Harry, here's the thing. I think this room… maybe even this castle is sentient, or maybe semi-sentient. Since it brought me here, I'm going to try and communicate with it. See if it can tell me what it thinks I am supposed to do."

Harry glanced around the room. "Sentient? I never thought about that before. It would explain the moving staircases, I suppose. But, you've done things like this before? Talking to sentient rooms?"

"Nope," Xander said, popping the 'p' of the word. "But how hard can it be, right? So, just be quiet and let me try this," he said and closed his one good eye again.

Harry nodded and quietly fretted. Soon the amber cage seemed to light up, and Xander seemed to sit straighter in the flickering ambiance.

The proclaimed Boy-Who-Lived nervously kept watch going on ten minutes before the light show came to an end.

Harry stood directly in front of the block of amber, watching as Xander shook his head and started to rise to his feet.

"Well, I got the gist of things," he told Harry. "I am from an alternate universe and will be sent back once you leave this room. Which is a good thing since I probably have several worried slayers looking for me right now."

The teen breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear it. I really didn't mean to waylay you like that."

Xander snorted. "Trust me, kid, you are by far one of the better people to have captured me, whether you meant to or not."

"How often do you get captured?"

"Too often to count. One of the worst though was when my hot new science teacher turned out to be a giant preying mantis who wanted to mate with me and then eat me." He shivered. "I still haven't entirely recovered from that."

"One of my teachers turned out to be a werewolf and tried to kill me and my friends," Harry said.

"This isn't a contest," Xander said flatly. "Even if it was, I still would have won. But let's get back to what the castle told me to do."

"It spoke to you?" an incredulous Harry said.

"She did. And remember that pronoun. She lets everyone else get away with calling her an it because they don't know better. But now you do know better, so she will hold you accountable."

"Ok, but, I still don't understand how Hogwarts can be alive. Does it have something to do with all the magical students coming her for a thousand years?"

"What, like magical life created by osmosis over the centuries?" Xander ran a hand through his hair. "That would be a lot nicer than the truth."

"What's the truth?" Harry asked, curious now about the history of his home.

"The truth is that the founders, when they were getting ready to set the foundation of this castle, took a young woman, Isabel, who had been a protégé of the four, and placed her under the very first stone. You should know that Isabel was already dying due to a nasty curse, and that this was actually her request. She already assumed she would return as a ghost. This way when she died, she would have a body again, though that body would turn out to be a massive castle."

"So she is a ghost? Hogwarts is just a haunted castle?"

Xander knocked on the amber wall. "Listen to me, Harry. Isabel is no ghost. Not… really. The founders, with her permission, transferred her essence through sacrifice into the castle itself. Basically, she is the castle."

The blood had left Harry's face. "That sounds like dark magic," he spoke in a whisper.

The light in the room flickered and shook briefly.

Xander gave the boy a weak smile. "Yeah, I don't think she liked you saying that." The one-eyed man turned as if listening to someone.

"Is-is she talking to you? Why doesn't she talk to me? The other ghosts in the castle will talk with me."

Xander held up his hand for Harry to be silent while he continued to listen to the castle. "Yeah, hmm, she can't talk to the students or interact with them much. This room is kind of an exception, but she still can't talk one-on-one with you. One of the early headmasters, actually it was a headmistress, used the control of the wards to silence Isabel, so she could promote her own agenda, instead of that of the Founders. Each headmaster after that has had a chance to reinstate Isabel, but instead have reduced her abilities to influence things even further for themselves."

The teen's mouth hung open. "I should tell Dumbledore. I'm sure he'd do something to help her. I can't imagine what it would be like to see everything in the castle, but not be able to be a part of it."

Xander held up his hand for Harry to stop. "Isabel says that Dumbledore (_now there's a crazy name_) knows about it already. In fact, he also uses it to manipulate events the way he wants."

Harry shook his head. "You're wrong! Dumbledore will help! He's the leader of the light!"

"That's just a title he made for himself," Xander said. "Isabel wants you to ask the room for a spell book that will show whether or not you have been given potions to influence you or make you loyal to someone."

"You're wrong!" snapped Harry, who was now feeling like he wanted to leave this room and Xander.

"Really? Then ask for the book, cast the spell, and prove that Dumbles is innocent."

Gritting his teeth at hearing the mockery of the headmaster's name, Harry snarled, "Fine! Give me the book I need!"

The spell book appeared on a pedestal in front of him, almost causing him to step back. It was already open to the necessary page and the spell was highlighted in a yellow glow. Harry looked at the cover seeing the title '_Common Protection Spells for Every Witch and Wizard_'. It was old and seemed very basic as far as spell book were concerned. On the front page was the Potter family crest stamped within which surprised the teen as he has never known his family had a crest.

"Where did Isabel get this book?" Harry asked anxiously as he traced his fingers over the crest.

Xander's head tilted to the side, listening again to the unheard ghost. "She says it was being kept in Dumbledore's personal library along with many other Potter books."

Harry grimaced. "This proves nothing."

Xander gave a weak smile. "Just do the spell."

Harry looked over the spell several times. He didn't have to wave his wand since this one was on himself, but he did have to be holding it. Quietly he said the spell, which Xander couldn't hear. He could, however, see the bright orange aura around the teenage wizard.

"That-that can't be right," Harry mumbled as he looked over the written spell again and cast it on himself again.

Xander called out to Harry several times before the teen would look over at the man trapped in the amber cage. "Hey, listen to me, Harry. Just because you have a loyalty spell on you making you loyal to the headmaster, that doesn't mean he is the one who gave it to you or even knows about it, right?"

Harry's eyes were just a little wet. "It was a potion. Not a spell. And I know you think that Dumbledore did this."

The one-eyed man gave a sheepish shrug. "I've been wrong before. But either way, you need to be freed from this."

"Why?"

"Well, because-"

"No, why do you care?" asked Xander.

Xander scratched the back of his head. "I've been labeled '_The One Who Sees_'. Ironically, it was done by the bastard that crushed my eye in its socket. But my friend Buffy cut him in half. But regardless of that, other entities and powers-that-may-be have also commented on my being One-Who-Sees. Basically, as far as I and my friends can figure, I'm able to look though the crap and see the right issues instead of following the ones that mislead everyone. I'm not infallible. Not by any means. One look into my personal history will tell you that. But, everything I've heard from you tells me something stinks in Denmark and some people want to lead you around by the nose."

"A purging potion," Harry muttered.

"Say what now?" Xander asked.

"The spell says that to counter the loyalty potion, I need a purging potion."

Xander nodded, then smacked his lips. "Sounds… fun. Can you get one?"

A laugh burst out of his mouth. "Well, if I go down to the Infirmary for one, that would let the headmaster or whoever know that I am ridding myself of their loyalty potion. I could brew it myself, but I can't get ahold of all the ingredients."

Xander had tilted his head again, listening to a silent voice. "Isabel suggests calling your house-elf friend. What the heck is a house-elf?"

Harry wiped his eyes. "You mean Dobby?"

There was a loud pop with the sudden appearance a short, long-eared, large-eyed humanoid creature. "The great Harry Potter sir had called for Dobby! How can Dobby be helping the great Harry Potter sir?"

"Um, Dobby, hi, again. How have you been?" he said.

This seem to cause a rush of emotions in the house-elf who began calling out how great he thought Harry Potter was, that he was even concerned about the wellbeing of a lowly house-elf.

"Please, please stop!" Harry begged, uncomfortable with the praise.

Dobby sucked in a great breath and turned to stare compliantly up at a very uncomfortable wizard.

Xander, meanwhile, was trying to hold in the laughter he felt ready to burst out of him. "Looks like you found your friend."

Dobby gasped. "The great Harry Potter sir considers Dobby a friend?"

Knowing there was going to be even more antics because of that, Harry decided to head it off. "Stop, Dobby. Don't… just hold still for a moment." Harry looked onto the large eyes of the house-elf and now understood what the term '_puppy-dog eyes_' meant. "Yes, Dobby, you are my friend. And I hate to ask this, but can you get me a purging potion without letting anyone know about it, and promise not to tell anyone about it?"

Realizing he was allowed to move again, Dobby nodded his head enthusiastically. "Dobby can do this." He then popped away, and within three seconds he popped right back with a glass vial filled with a brown syrup. "And Dobby is promising not to tell."

"That looks… unappetizing," Xander commented.

Harry grimaced. "It looks like-"

"Don't say it!" Xander called out. "You're the one that has to drink it."

Harry looked at the vial again and made a face. "You know, I could probably see if Dobby could get you one, too."

"No thanks!" Xander said. "I think I am inaccessible to him or anyone else. Except for Isabel, that is."

After some more urging Harry finally downed the substance in one go.

"So how was it?"

Harry was smacking his lips and making a face. "Kind of like chocolate. If the chocolate had been coated in olive oil that had started turning."

"My sympathies. Now this purging potion, what all can you expect when it starts working?"

Harry gulped nervously, shifting his feet. "I'm going to need a bathroom!"

A door appeared in the wall next to him and Harry bolted inside of it, ripping off his robe as he shut the door.

Xander sat down and leaned against the amber walls of his container. "Poor kid." He sighed. "So, Isabel, why don't you tell me about yourself. I know you don't get much of a chance to talk to anyone."

¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`

It was a subdued, trembling Harry that walked out of the bathroom over an hour later. "That was one of the worst experiences in my life. And I've been up close with Voldemort, Dementors and the Dursleys."

"Sorry about that, Harry," Xander said with a chuckle, "but hopefully it will be all right in the end."

"Is that American humor?" Harry eyed him coldly.

"Don't be like that, Harry. I'm on your side after all."

Dobby popped in and gave Harry a cup of tea, gave him a weak smile and popped out again.

"You have a loyal friend there," Xander said.

Harry nodded and took a sip. "Yeah, he once tried so hard to save me in my Second Year here, he almost crippled me for life on purpose."

Xander eyebrows rose. "I think I am missing some commentary."

Harry waved it away. "It's all in the past. He thought there was a worst threat here, so he tried maiming me in order to try and save me. Right now, I have to figure out what to do about Dumbledore along with this bloody Tournament. I didn't think he was trying very hard to get me out of the tournament, now I think he wants me in it. For all I know, he is the one that entered me."

Xander had his head turned as the invisible Isabel was telling him something. "Isabel says there is something going on with Dumbledore right now and she would like to show us."

Running his hand over his mouth again, Harry just nodded.

The wall opposite Xander's amber prison lit up similarly to that of a large television screen. The view on the other side was that of the headmaster's office. Albus Dumbledore was looking through an old scroll, making notations onto a piece of parchment.

The old wizard looked, and said '_Come in, Ronald_', just before the youngest male Weasley came storming into the office.

"How did he do it?" Ron Weasley demanded, as he automatically began to pace the floor as if he were familiar in doing so there.

"If you mean how did Mr. Potter get his name into the Goblet of Fire, I am not you certain," responded the wizened wizard.

Ron snorted in disgust. "The showoff couldn't even let me in on how he did it! Can you believe that? I'm supposed to be the best mate he has ever had, and he doesn't even let me in on it!"

"I take it that Mr. Potter is still denying having entered the contest?" Dumbledore wily asked.

"I'm sure he would if I could find him! The cheating bastard never came back to the tower!" Ron stopped in his tirade to reach out and snag a handful of lemon drops that Dumbledore kept on his desk, making the older wizard wince as the teen preceded to jam several of the sweets into his mouth, then shoved the rest in his pocket.

"Am I to understand that Mr. Potter is wandering the halls instead of consulting his friends at this late hour?"

"Would I be here complaining about him otherwise?" Ron snarked, forgetting about who he was talking to.

Dumbledore stroked his long beard as he thought. "I suppose a night on his own in the halls of the castle instead of his bed might do some good."

"I hope he never comes back," said a more subdued Ron, as the calming drafts laced into the candy began to take effect.

"We still have need of him, Ronald. However, I think a time of letting young Mr. Potter struggle on his own for a bit might be good. In fact, after the First Task concludes may be the best time for you to return to being friends with Mr. Potter."

Ron began to choke on the candy in his mouth. Finally, he managed to spit them all out into his hand which he then put them all in his pocket with the other candies. "You want me to go back to being friends with that cheat?!"

"It is what I am paying you for, Ronald," stated the headmaster, more coolly than he had spoken before.

Ron swallowed nervously. "Uh, yeah, I guess. But it just bothers me. How could he have done it when sneaky gits like the twins couldn't get past the age line?"

Dumbledore almost rolled his eyes at seeing how Ron tried to change the subject. "I have been giving it some thought. My only guess at this point is that he used his invisibility cloak to sneak across the age line to enter his name."

Ron starred in open-mouthed surprise. Then anger returned to his features. "He could have easily let me have a go at entering my name with that cloak of his, the bloody git! But no, he wants all that fame for himself! I can't believe I have to stand by and let that sneaky, self-centered git marry my sister!"

Dumbledore was looking at his lemon drops. Either the calming potions had been put too thinly on them or the blasted Weasley boy was become immune to them. The wizened wizard attributed it to Prewett heredity going through puberty, and made a mental note to have Snape make a stronger batch next time. "Now, Ronald, you know Mr. Potter must marry Ginerva in order for your family to inherit his family fortune when Voldemort finally kills him. You are key to making that happen. You can only have a short reprieve from being Mr. Potter's friend. If you were to permanently lose his friendship, it may make it difficult in getting him married to your sister."

Ron snorted in annoyance. "As if! Harry's desperate for friends. I could probably burn up everything he owns right in front of him, and he'd still want to be friends with me afterwards."

The headmaster shot him a sharp look. "Do not treat this matter lightly, Ronald. If you were to permanently lose his friendship-"

"I know! I know! But I won't," insisted the redhead. "Hey, can I keep his invisibility cloak when we are through with him?"

"I'm afraid not. I have plans for that particular item. I wouldn't have returned it to Mr. Potter, except I had sworn an oath to his father to return it."

"Can I at least borrow it? I just want to see if it could get me into th-"

The screen on the wall faded from existence. Harry sat there in horror after having listened to the plans of two prominent people in his life. He would have been sick except the purging potion had already removed everything.

"You know what, Harry?" Xander asked. "People suck. Just remember not everyone is like that."

The screen returned to the wall. This time it showed a pretty, bushy-haired teenage girl sitting alone in the Gryffindor common room in a chair close to the entrance. She had a thick book in her lap that she was totally ignoring as she stared at the portrait hole while biting her lip.

"Huh, she reminds me of Willow," the one-eyed man stated.

"What?" Harry said, shaking off his surprise at suddenly seeing his friend's image.

"My best friend growing up, Willow. She was always of the books, and later of the computers, too. Super brainy, and she later became a super witch, too."

"Um, this is my Hermione. I mean, this is Hermione. She's my… I hope she's my friend. I-I don't know what I would do if-if she was like Ron. Paid to be my friend."

Xander felt for the kid who had just learned he was just being raised for slaughter by people he loved. He knew he'd do what he could to help this kid's life get set straight. "Isabel says that she is your true friend, though she has also been given some loyalty potions towards the headmaster."

Magic began to crackle around the young teen. "I'll… I'll…"

"Easy, Sparky! If there is going to be any revenge, then you need to understand the landscape. You need to know all of what has been going on."

Harry glanced back at Xander and then over to where he assumed Xander saw Isabel. "Could Hermione come here? She is a lot more logically minded then me. She could help me through this. Plus, I don't want her there alone in the common room when Ron comes storming in. He's sure to start a row with her if he thinks she is siding with me."

Xander turned to listen to thin air for a moment.

"Very well, Isabel is making the screen into a temporary portal so please get her through quick."

Harry noticed Hermione in the screen suddenly standing up, dropping her book and staring right at him. "Hermione, quick! Come here!"

"H-Harry?"

"Harry," Xander said, "Tell her to come with you if she wants to live."

"What?" both teens said, turning to him in horror and surprise.

"It's a great movie quote, and one that probably would have been better used at a different time," Xander reluctantly acknowledged. "But she does have to hurry. Ron will be there soon."

That was something Harry did understand. "Hermione, please, just hurry through the portal and I will explain everything!"

Taking in a deep breath, Hermione launched herself through the portal which turned out to be as easy as stepping in the next room. Not realizing it would be so easy, she ended up colliding with Harry, knocking them both to the floor.

"Sorry, sorry," Hermione said, trying to get back up.

"Um, no worries," Harry said, easing himself off the floor.

Hermione looked back the way she had come and saw the common room. Ron had come in and was heading toward the stairs to the dorms, only pausing to grab some cookies someone had left out, and then chucked an inkwell at Crookshanks who easily dodged it.

"I'll tear his ears off!" she shrieked. "No wonder Crookshanks always disliked Ron! Ron's a complete arse!"

"You have no idea," Harry responded, placing a calming hand on her shoulder.

Then Harry went on to explain about everything he'd been shown. She had believed him up to the point of Dumbledore. Finally, Dobby was asked to obtain another purging potion. Harry hated letting her do that to herself, but the alternative seemed even worse.

Isabel -by way of Xander- revealed that Dumbles has been having Harry guided through several events. Testing him to see just what he could expect from the boy. Training the boy to do what it took to win, even to the death. The Dursleys were the first thing he'd been subjected to. After that it was a series of events every year.

Hermione listened to most of it from the bathroom where the purging potion was working on her.

When she was finally silently sitting close to Harry in an antique love seat while sipping her tea, she looked up and spoke. "I don't know about you, Harry, but I want to kick some bloody arse!"

"Language, Hermione!" Harry said with amusement, a grin growing on his face. "And hell yeah!"

"Excuse me, oh dynamic duo," Xander intruded. "But, if you recall, you were originally seeking a way to survive the Triwizzy thing. And Isabel has a price."

Both teens froze. "Wait, what do you mean, '_a price_'?"

Xander sighed. "Nothing's ever free, kiddos. But, Isabel assures me that she had studied you two enough to know that you would be more than willing to do most of her chore list even if she wasn't making it a requirement."

"Then why is she making a requirement?" asked Harry. "Why not just ask us?"

"Because she wants it done sooner than later, and if it's a requirement, then you want to try get it finished so it doesn't get in the way of the other things you want to do, like donuts! No one should ever have something keeping them from getting to donuts. Those confectionary delights with their filling, oh, it would just be so bad if you missed out on those because you had not cleaned your room first. Or if you forgot to take out the trash. Then there is the homework. I always had prob-" He seemed to stop when an unseen person began speaking to him again. "Sorry, I was just trying to make a point."

"What are these things she wants us to do?" Hermione asked.

Xander held up a finger. "First off, you two, please talk directly to Isabel. I know you can't see her or hear her, but think of it as if you were talking to a deaf person via someone on the phone. It's just polite."

"Sorry, Isabel," Hermione said, trying to look where she thought the spirit was. "There has just been a lot thrust upon Harry and myself. I am usually better mannered."

"Uh, me too, though a little slower on the uptake," Harry said, copying Hermione.

A scroll appeared in Hermione's lap. With a moment's hesitation, the teen took it up and read it. "Most of this seems… fairly simple. But some of this might take a bit… if we can even manage it."

"I'm game," Harry said, looking soberly at the list. "I just hope it is in my abilities to do so."

"And that is where I come into play," Xander said, rising to his feet. "Isabel's been explaining how she wants me to help you out. And how she can make it possible. See, it goes back to something that happened when I was just a few years older than you are now. It was coming near Halloween and I lived over a very volatile magical piece of land that was called the Sunnydale, otherwise known as the Hellmouth. Not that most people knew that, but anyway, back to the story. There was this vile prankster of a magic dabbler named Ethan Rayne. He put up a costume shop in town right before Halloween, but had set it up so that everyone who put on his costumes actually became those characters. Mayhem ensued. I for one became a soldier in the army. My friend Willow had gone as a ghost and then was one. Buffy became the 18th century lady she had dressed up as and so on and so forth."

"How does that help us?" Harry asked.

"Patience, grasshopper. My story does not end there, but you've heard enough of it for what I need to tell you. Isabel wants me to help you to find a character to do a partial transformation of, so you can survive this tournament you are in."

"You think I should be a soldier like you had become?"

"Yee gadz! No, that was just what I went as because I had no cash for a fancy costume. Even so, the military memories are still floating around in my head and have been rather useful on occasion. For you, Harry, I am thinking more of something from the superhero line, or something likewise powerful. Now, tell me what ideas you have?"

Harry just stared at the man.

Xander rubbed his head. "Please, tell me you have comic books in this universe."

"Uh, I know what comic books are," admitted Harry. "I've just never been allowed to read any."

Xander frowned. "This is sort of like how you never heard of Star Wars, right?"

Hermione gasped. "You've never seen Star Wars, Harry?" causing Harry to slump down in shame.

"Hold it, you two. Isabel's told me that most of the fiction in this world is the same as on my world, which is why I am compatible here."

"How is this going to be affecting Harry?" asked Hermione. "It sounds like you are planning to make him into so sort of amalgamation."

"That's the five-dollar word. Amalgamation, thank you," Xander chortled. "Now the process will give Harry the characteristics of the character. The powers, abilities, the tech, the knowledge."

"But I want Harry to be… Harry," said the teen witch.

"And he will be. Just… more."

She turned to Harry. "I'm having reservations."

Harry let out a sigh. "What were you telling me before about the survivability rate of previous tournaments?"

Her head hung low. "I'm not happy about this."

"I'm not either," he replied, taking her hand in his. "But, I don't know what else to do."

"I could help you." She looked at him pleadingly. "I can research everything you need to know about the Tournament. I can help you train and learn new spells."

"Normally I would agree with you, Hermione. But, now I know I have Dumbledore, Ron and who knows who else all ready to drag me down. We need something extra on our side. Xander, Isabel and this amalgamation thing looks to be it."

She tackled him into a hug, startling him.

Xander gave Isabel a smirk, but wisely stayed silent.

"Fine," Hermione stated. "But I am going through the process, too."

"What? No!" Harry pulled away from his schoolmate.

"It's not up for discussion, Harry. I have a feeling that before this is over, I may need an extra edge to get through this, too." She turned toward Isabel. "Is it possible to include me, Isabel?"

"The lady says '_yes_'," answered Xander. "Now let me explain some of the requirements for this to work. Ol' Ethan used costumes to match identities to. Isabel has to use something slightly different. Basically, she and I need to use the most common characteristics you have to the character you choose. There has to be some similar references for the spell to latch onto. Maybe something in common in your history or character so that it would be an easier match."

"How do we go about choosing someone?" Harry asked.

The walls of the room began to be covered with small screens of different people.

"Is this…" Hermione got to her feet followed by Harry. "These are who we choose among?" She stared at a woman in the small screen begin to twirl a glowing lasso and then lassoed a plane about to take off, stopping it with sheer strength. In another screen, a woman leapt out of an ancient temple while being chased by a horde of screaming native headhunters. Harry was watching a screen showing a man in a leather loin cloth swinging from tree to tree while chatting with a nearby monkey. On the next screen, a large, horned humanoid beast strode through a castle filled with living furniture and fixtures.

"This could take a while," Harry said as he glanced down the rows and rows of screens.

¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸¸.•´¯`

**AuThOr'S NoTeS: **_10/01/2019_

_I wrote this while sick, so I hope there weren't too many mistakes. It's just an idea I came up with, and I thought with October being the time when several of the Buffy Halloween stories start coming in, I thought I would try and have one ready. I already have an idea of who I will amalgamize the two teens with so if you have an idea of your own, I suggest you write it yourself._

_This can also be a challenge for any author who want to try the amalgamation storyline. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**By Ordinaryguy2**

**Room of Requirement**

"It's getting late, you two. You have to choose soon."

Hermione looked over to Xander. Both teens had been deleting some of the many possible options they had to choose among. "You didn't mention a timetable before."

"I didn't want to pressure you both," Xander said from the amber cage he was enclosed within. "Now, however, we are getting down to the wire."

"How much time do we have to make a choice?" Harry asked.

"Midnight. The witching hour." The last part he said trying to be mysterious as well as humorous. Neither of the teens were amused.

"That is half an hour from now!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I know, I know," Xander said, his hands held us in order to placate submission. "Look, how about this. Harry and I will go over his remaining selections while you narrow yours down a little further. Remember that the more common factors you have, the easier the integration will be in accepting the new abilities."

The remaining small screens that Harry had been looking at moved over to the wall of amber. Harry glanced over to Hermione whose choices had moved to the far end of the amber wall, but she had already turned to regard her choices and deleted one of the possibilities presented for her.

Harry let out a sigh as he felt his frustrations weighing him down.

"Ok, Harry. I think if we narrow it down some more it will help you to choose."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Xander said, "for instance, as much as I love Benjamin Grimm, I don't think the xenophobic Wizarding World you described would welcome you as the lookalike of the Thing." Xander tapped that screen from his side of the amber wall and it faded away. "The same for the Savage Dragon, Beast, Nightcrawler, Metamorpho, Swamp Thing, Concrete, Gorilla-Man and Groot."

"I could have amalgamed with them?" Harry said, confused. "I don't see a lot that I would have in common with them."

"It would have been a stretch, I admit," Xander said with a nod. "But still cool." He then paused as he spotted one of the screens. "Speaking of things in common, are you straight?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you gay? Do you like girls or boys more?"

Harry immediately flushed. "Girls!" He looked over at Hermione who had glanced his way for a moment before returning to her own project. "Girls," Harry said again, much quieter this time. "I just… don't know how to… be in a relationship. I didn't have the best examples with my relatives."

"That I can understand," Xander said. Over at the screens, Xander discarded a few choices. "Northstar is not a match then. Neither would DC's Tasmanian Devil or Obsidian." He deleted the next two as well.

"Sexual preference is a factor then?" Harry asked.

"It can be. We don't want you rejecting the amalgamizing because you don't want those thoughts. Now are you a vegetarian?"

"That's a factor?"

"If you are a vegan, and I try to merge you with a heavy meat eater, there could be an internal conflict."

"I eat most anything I can. I'm not picky."

Xander frowned at that answer. He'd said something like that when he was a teenager. For him it had meant that he was lucky to get anything edible at his home. His mother was notorious for setting off the smoke detector and his dad would drink most of the food money when he got a chance. Good thing Willow would invite him over to graze or his growth would have been stunted.

"Are you ok with violence?"

The teen regarded him for a second. "When I have to, I can fight."

"That's good. I don't see any pacifists among your choices."

"Oh, well," said Harry, "what next?"

"This redhead is Jason Blood. He's got a connection to a demon. They are sort of tied together. I think that could affect what we are trying to do here. Plus, I fight demons, so…" Xander deleted that screen. "And Dracula? Hell, no! Why is he even an option?" Xander deleted that one, too. "Sorry, I have history with a version of that dude in my world. Not of the good. Now let's see… Spawn, Ghost Rider, Venom and Hellboy can be given a skip, too. Best not to have connections to monsters."

Harry wanted to ask more about the names Xander was mentioning, but decided he had enough to focus on in making a decision in the next few minutes. Xander was specifically chosen to help Harry in this area, so Harry was determined to accept that help.

Xander glanced at the nearest screen. "Creeper?" Xander pointed to a yellow-skinned, green-haired leaping through the darkness while laughing maddingly. "Mental issues. I think we can give him a skip."

"Mental issues?"

"He's insane," Xander deadpanned. "But in that sense, I think we can remove the Badger, Moon Knight, Madman, Deadpool, Madcap, Hank Pym, Captain Jack Sparrow and the Mask." More choices disappeared.

"Can I ask a question?" Harry asked.

"You just did, but go for another."

"Well, you said that these characters all had some common factors with me. Some of those that you removed I can't see me having anything in common with."

Xander was about to reference when Isabel spoke to him. Xander listened carefully to the spirit that was the embodiment of the castle. He expression became more and more somber. "I see."

Harry was now used to the silent conversations Xander had with Isabel who the teen could not perceive. "See what?"

Xander sighed. "There is no easy way to say it, Harry. Isabel told me what she could, and it isn't good. Evidently, the night old Voldie made you an orphan, he somehow tainted you with part of himself."

"He made me a parselmouth."

"A what-now?" Xander said, confused.

"I gained the ability to speak with snakes from him. That's what Dumbledore says anyway."

Xander shrugged. "Maybe so, maybe not. Don't know right now. It's just some of these selections are evidently tainted by him. Obviously, the monster and insane ones. Possibly the gay ones. I don't suppose you know if Voldie had a significant other in his life?"

Harry shook his head, baffled at the idea of anyone being romantically interested in someone so twistedly evil.

"Well, nothing for us to do now except move on." Xander returned to looking at the charts on the little screens. "I suppose we can take out Sub-Mariner, too. He's best in water. And has a bit of mental instability at times. And Hulk… lots of power, but extreme anger issues. He'd probably break the castle and I just couldn't do that to Isabel." He frowned. "I should probably leave out Judge Dredd and Punisher for those issues, too."

He paused as he stared at one of the choices. "The hell? Angel? There is no way I am allowing you to amalgamize with broody dead-boy!" He deleted that one with relish and more than a bit of enthusiasm.

"Thor and Hercules? I would love to make those work, but if there are any versions of Thor and Hercules in this universe, having a doppelganger suddenly appear would cause an altercation of significant destruction." He deleted the two gods from the que.

"Oh wow! Indiana Jones! He's quite the adventurer and really good with a whip. But probably not the skills we are looking for." With regret, Xander let Dr. Jones go.

"Oh, and look, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker! I love Han Solo, but the wizards and witches probably would not allow you to bring a blaster into their contests. Luke, however, can use the force even if his lightsaber is not allowed." Xander studied the information at the side of the screen. "There could be a problem. The fact that he is a blonde and you most definitely are not could be too big a factor to allow a connection."

"How do we know for sure?"

"We try the ritual. If it works, great; if not, you are out of luck because we can only try it on you once."

The teen shook his head. "It's not worth it."

Xander nodded his agreement. "You know what, we should just take out those that are blonde since that would work against you, too." Almost a third of what remained of the screens disappeared. "Dang, that took out Dr. Fate. It would have been cool to see what your magicals thought of him. And Iron Fist, too? And Naruto. And the Mighty Samson, Doc Savage and the Flash."

"Plastic Man?" Harry said, pointing to a screen that was still there.

"Hmm, I like the guy," said Xander. "Main problem is that he tends to see the world as a cartoon. His rather bizarre antics could cause problems with your 17th century magicals mindset. Tell you what, we will consider him for a final selection."

The Plastic Man screen was moved off to one side while they considered the others.

Soon more were removed. Dr. Druid, Magnus Robot Fighter, Vibe and the Phantom.

"Oh, my! It's Spock!" Xander looked to Harry with gleeful anticipation, which than fell at Harry's look of confusion. "You don't know Star Trek, do you?"

"I've heard the term before. Something about torpedoes and green-skinned women in outer space."

Xander snorted despite his dismay. "Spock is… Spock. He's the chief science officer of the Enterprise, a massive spaceship. He's part Human, part Vulcan. He's got green blood and is stronger than regular Humans. He also slightly telepathic. Extremely intelligent and basically has such extreme control of his emotions than it seems he has none."

Harry frowned and didn't know what to say regarding that.

"I'm just going to put him in the '_maybe_' pile with Plastic Man for now," Harry said, now realizing he'd been sounding like Andrew Wells.

They then decided that while most action heroes can be awesome, that Harry needed extra powers more. That led to the removal of James Bond, John Rambo, Bryan Mills, Jason Bourne, Aragorn, John Wick, Martin Riggs, John McClane, Harry Callahan, Kull, King Leonidas, Autolocus, William Wallace, Ethan Hunt, Ash Williams, Conan, Casey Jones, Jack Ryan, Riddick, '_Mad_' Max Rockatansky, Dominic Toretto, Snake Plissken, Barney Ross, Frank Martin and Inigo Montoya. Xander almost seemed to go into a geek coma after that.

Harry said no to Starfox as soon as he had heard that despite being able to fly and have some super strength, the alien also generated a love field. Xander determined that Cyclops, though extremely powerful, could be devastating to everyone around if he lost his visor. Xander did insist that Batman was a contender despite the lack of abilities, because of his genius in planning to overcome those with greater abilities. Xander also talked Harry into considering Beast Boy, Iceman, Cosmic Boy, Mage, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Green Lama & Dr. Strange. Sadly, Xander suggested that Iron Man should be let go since modern technology didn't seem to work around Hogwarts. Neo was also let go when Xander realized that outside of the Matrix, Neo wouldn't have very many abilities.

When Xander asked if he had ever used a sword, Harry brought up the sword of Gryffindor and a brief mention of his venture in the Chamber of Secrets. "The Black Knight! He's got a magical sword that can cut through anything."

"That could be cool!" Harry grinned.

"But then there is the curse to consider."

"What curse?" asked Harry.

Xander sighed. "The curse on the sword. It can't be used to spill blood or… Never mind, let's just remove him from the running." He grimaced. "Too bad the Shining Knight was a blonde. And then Grant Morrison had to turn him into a her. The bastard."

"What?"

Xander shook his head. "Somebody wrecked one of my favorite characters. Don't worry about it. But here's another guy who can cut through almost anything. Wolverine." Xander went on to talk about the Marvel mutant. He was quickly put in the '_to be considered_' section. Several more were put in the pile to be considered including Birdman, Superboy, Hawkman, Spider-Man, Mr. Miracle, Space Ghost, The Doctor, Black Condor and DC's Captain Marvel, and then Xander left Harry to consider things while he went to help Hermione with her selection process.

"I see you've removed the blonde choices," Xander said.

"Isabel sent me a message." She held up a note that had writing on it. "I wasn't happy about letting go of Supergirl or Powergirl."

"I wouldn't be happy with letting them go either," Xander said with a grin. "But serious, how are you doing?"

She sighed. "I'm still trying to accept this is possible." She regarded him. "You are sure that these are just copies we will be absorbing; not the real person."

"Isabel has assured me that that is not the case." He turned to her list. "Now do you mind if I help you remove some of the clutter. I've read or watched most of these characters while growing up."

"I never realized there was such a variety." Hermione glanced at the wall covered with characters. Biting her lip, she then looked over at Harry.

"Are you two an item?" Xander asked.

"What? No!" She blushed looking away. "Harry would never look at me like that."

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much!" Xander said in one of the worst Shakespearian accents Hermione had ever heard, and that included Shamus' attempt at reciting from '_Romeo & Juliet_'.

"Please, don't ever do that again."

"Everybody hates my Shakespeare," the one-eyed man complained. "But that…" He stopped to look at one of her possible choices. "Vampirella? Really?"

Hermione looked to who he referred to. "Oh, her. I don't know. She isn't really like the vampires around here. She's actually an alien. But she has some admirable powers."

"That's not what most people admire about her, kid. Plus, she drinks blood. And with most people's prejudice against vampires, justified though it is, well, you can see where I am going with this. Plus, I have this thing about vampires. Let's remove Selene from the list, too, if you don't mind."

She didn't want to continue on the subject since it seemed to be a hot button for him. Plus, the thought of drinking blood made her nauseous.

"This one, Katniss Everdeen. All she seems to do is use a crossbow as a weapon," Hermione complained.

"I'll agree that Katniss isn't for you," Xander stated. "However, it's how you use the weapon that counts. See here." Xander pointed to a screen showing a woman moving through the shadows on a roof while aiming a crossbow. "Huntress is a serious kick-butt fighter. She is a good possibility for you to choose even if she doesn't have any powers. A couple other non-powered fighters like that would be Batgirl, Scarlett and Black Widow. Sarah Connor is another non-powered heroine that still knows how to take out the enemy, but she is not of the same category as the others. Lara Croft is, well, wow. Sometimes she reminds me of my friend Buffy. If you want someone younger, then you have Hit-Girl, but she can be a bit homicidal."

"That's a little girl!" Hermione said horrified.

"Yeah, just a little younger than you. Evidently her father was a little nuts and he was trying to have a vigilante family bonding with his daughter. It didn't work out well for him. She survived though."

Hermione quickly removed Hit-Girl from the list. She really didn't think it would be good for her to have moments of homicidal tendencies with Draco Malfoy around.

Xander sighed. "Cameron Phillips. She is basically a killer robot covered by a very hot meat suit. She doesn't understand emotions and is very literal. She will do whatever it takes to complete her objective. Her biggest problem is she doesn't care if people get hurt or die. Plus, being a robot, she might not be able to function properly due to the high concentration of magic."

"Plus, I don't want to be a robot." Hermione quickly deleted the female terminator. She glanced over her choices only to do a doubletake. "There she is again. I just got rid of her."

Xander instantly understood the problem. "That is River Tam. They just look alike. River is more… well, she is hard to describe. She is from hundreds of years in the future after mankind had fled Earth for the stars. River was a brilliant child, but unethical scientists were tasked to see if they could modify children like her to be super agents that would do whatever was asked of them. Kind of like the Cameron robot. Fortunately for River, her brother broke her out. Unfortunately for River, a lot of the damage was done."

"I think I will skip brain damage," Hermione said with a shiver.

"This one is Ellen Ripley. She's also from a couple hundred years in the future. She has explored space for a corporation trying to find planet to settle and utilize." He paused as he looked over the info next to the picture. "Oh. This might be a problem. This particular Ripley is the cloned one that in part Human and part Xenomorph."

"Xenomorth?" Hermione asked.

"Just think scaly and very alien. Also, she and the aliens have acid for blood."

"What?" She looked horrified.

"Yeah, the kind of acid that can eat right through metal in seconds. And the alien part of her influences her in some ways. Not sure how completely, because that is where the movie ended and fanfiction picked up."

"What's fanfiction?"

Xander help up his hands again. "That would take too long. And we have a deadline approaching."

She begrudgingly agreed to save those questions for later. She was unsure about Ripley, and put her in the grouping for her second round of considerations.

"Is that Ariel from '_The Little Mermaid_'?" Xander turned to regard Hermione who was blushing. "Why did you put her in the pile of those to be considered?"

"Sue me. I like the idea of becoming a mermaid. It's actually a common phenomenon among girls since that Disney movie came out."

Xander nodded and tried to hide his grin. "Just not practical since the castle you go to school in is way above water."

"I know you are right. Still, I am going to leave her with the others for now. Just because," she insisted.

Xander held up his hands in mock surrender. Instead, he glanced at the group she had already set aside for a second consideration. Miss Martian? Most likely possible thanks to her shape changing abilities. Leeloo from "_The Fifth Element_" was there making Xander grin from ear to ear. The hair might cause some problems with Hermione accepting the bonding ritual, but it might not. Mary Marvel made Xander want to say "Shazam!" Tigra made him want to say "Meow!" The Scarlet Witch made Xander a bit nervous. The red hair was a lot closer than blonde was, so the risk was more acceptable. Her mental stability could be a problem at times which Xander wanted to blame on the writers seeking a bad plot device. The She-Hulk could be very interesting and turn more than a few heads. Jade, the daughter of DC's first Green Lantern, could be very powerful as well as useful. Ghost had his approval, though the magicals might complain if she started using guns around the school. Wonder Woman could work out nicely, especially if she has the golden lasso and bracelets. Monet had him frown. The mighty mutant was as powerful as she was intelligent, but also very arrogant. If her personality were to bleed over into Hermione, that could cause problems.

Glancing over, Xander saw Hermione removing Hawkwoman from the list. "What's wrong with her?"

Hermione looked embarrassed. "I don't enjoy flying."

The one-eyed man chuckled. "She could have helped you overcome that."

"And now we will never know," Hermione answered back with a humorous tone. She then discarded the Wasp, too.

"You know that some of those in your saving pile can fly, too, right?" Xander pointed to a picture of the Phoenix, Mary Marvel and Miss Martian.

She was biting her lip again. "I'll… They don't have to fly if they don't want to. Hawkwoman and the Wasp fly most of the time. I just don't know if I can deal with that."

Xander's finger stayed on the picture of the Phoenix. "I don't think this is a good one."

Hermione frowned. "Why? She seems very powerful."

"That is part of the problem. Jean Grey has become host to the Phoenix Force, which can become ravenous at times, consuming stars, and thus destroys planets that need their stars. It's not a good combination."

The teen witch stared at the screen for a few seconds before discarding it.

Xander went back to perusing her choices and was glad to see Hermione was considering Xena, Shadowcat and Zatanna.

He made a gasping sound that drew Hermione's attention.

"Problem?"

"Not… necessarily." Xander scratched at the back of his neck. He then, with reluctance, pointed to the screen depicting a dark-haired young woman fighting a demon. "That's Faith Lehane. Um, she is a Slayer. From my world. An… acquaintance of mine. We've fought both for and against each other."

Hermione regarded him, trying to understand the problem he seemed to be having. "Is she unstable?"

"Hmm? Not really. No more than anyone else, I guess. She fights solely for the white hats now. She has super-strength, fighting skills, prophetic dreams, heals quickly, lots of energy. Etcetera, Etcetera." He stopped talking.

"I don't understand the problem," Hermione admitted.

Xander lowered his eye to the floor. "You see, when you merge with one of these girls, you will not only gain their abilities, you also pick up their knowledge and life experiences."

"And that is the problem?"

Xander couldn't think of any other way to say it. "Faith and I have been intimate. Faith has actually been intimate with quite a few people as I understand it."

"Please stop talking!" she said in a hushed tone, moving Faith's screen to the discard pile refusing to look at him at the moment.

"That's probably for the best," Xander admitted. He glanced at her remaining choices and sighed. "Willow. This one is my best bud since kindergarten." He turned to the side. "Isabel, did you have to pull copies of my friends into this?" He listened to her answer and sighed.

"This says she is a powerful witch," Hermione said, reading the information about Willow.

"Yeah, she has super computer kung fu skills, too. She's been learning several dead languages, also, in order to stop the occasional apocalypse and various other unnatural disasters."

Hermione eyed Xander who was trying to hide his discomfort. "Would it be bad if I were to join with a copy of your friend?"

"Uh, well, there is a couple of things you should know beforehand since you would probably get some or all of her memories. See, first, Willow and I kind of had an affair, I guess. We were both seeing other people… and the kissing just started."

Hermione held up her hand for him to stop. "Anything else?"

"Now that you mention it, she is extremely powerful. I mean really extremely. The bad part is the magic can be rather overwhelming at times. Good Willow can become Angry Willow to the point she almost destroyed the world."

"Because of your affair?" Hermione asked, wondering just how much power Willow must have.

"What? No! This happened a couple of years later. Willow's lover, Tara, was killed. She didn't take it well. Thus, the whole Going-To-End-The-World phase."

"Tara? A woman. She was gay? Or I guess bi-sexual would be the term if she had an affair with you, too."

"I'm not labeling my friend. I just want her happy."

Hermione's eyes widened. "If I amalgamed with her, would I also become… gay or bi-sexual?" Her eyes shot over to Harry who, thankfully, could not hear her conversation with Xander.

"Not a clue? Does it matter to you?"

"I-I think I have feelings for someone, and I don't want to change that."

"I don't know that it would change anything. But something like this… who really knows?"

Hermione bit her lower lip as she considered this new problem.

Xander decided to distract her by pointing to one of the remaining choices. "Wolvesbane. One of the original New Mutants. Born in bonny Scotland. Treated horribly by the man who raised her to the point he led a mob to kill her when her mutant abilities first appeared."

"That's-that's horrible!" Hermione said. "Why would they do such a thing?"

"People can be a cowardly, superstitious lot. And one day in public, poor Rahne turned into a wolf. That's going to shake up most people. But, let's list her good points… she can maintain a form halfway between wolf and Human. In that state she has quicker reflexes and is stronger than a regular person. She also has claws and can bite."

Hermione moved to discard Wolvesbane. "The witches and wizards we deal with already have extremely outdated prejudices against those with lycanthrope. If I were to take on Wolvesbane's abilities, I would be instantly ostracized."

That left just one profile left to look at. She was an orange-skin female with a large amount of frilly hair. She shot beams of energy from her hands, and worst of all… she flew.

"Starfire," Xander said with a sigh.

"You know her, too?"

"One of DC Comics hottest babes."

Hermione rolled her eyes, annoyed at Xander comment. "Such a ringing endorsement of praise."

"She's a princess from her planet."

"And an alien?" Hermione regarded Starfire again, but the only alien feature she could see was her totally green eyes.

"She escaped enslavement by another alien race by fleeing to Earth and joined the Teen Titans. She was trained as a warrior from her youth, is stronger than a Human, and she is powered by solar energy. In her head is the knowledge of the histories, philosophy and technology of her race. And to top it off, she has the ability to learn another person's language just by kissing them."

"That can't be a real power!"

"Actually, it is. How many languages do you know?" he asked with a grin.

"English, French, German, Spanish and the majority of Latin. I've just started studying Portuguese and Japanese this summer."

"And Starfire can learn all of them with a kiss."

Hermione scowled, turning her eyes back to the screen. She decided to move on from that focus. "Why does she dress that way? It's so exposed."

"Probably an artist thing. But I think the most common comic geek answer is that her planet is much warmer than Earth. Plus, with her powers, the less skin covering her makes it easier for her to absorb solar energy. I think she has flown in outer space, so her powers probably keep her warm as well as protect her from radiation."

"No one should look that good," Xander heard her mutter to herself before she glanced back towards Harry.

Xander tilted his head to the side. "Uh, Isabel said it is almost time if we are going to get the full effect of the spell. You have, I think, just under twenty people to select among. I am going to over to check on Harry." He paused as she glanced through her choices again. "Hermione, you can do this if you want to. But, if you are having second thought, Harry could do this on his own."

She shot him a look and shook her head. "I will not abandon Harry. He is going to need all the help he can get."

"I'm sure you would be plenty helpful as your normal self. This is entirely your choice."

"I'll be ready in two minutes," she insisted. "Go help Harry."

Xander nodded from his side of the amber cage he was in. Once he was in front of Harry, he noted that the teen had narrowed his ideas down to two possibilities. "So, any questions?"

Harry ran his hand through his already messy hair. "I just wish I didn't have to choose just one."

That struck a chord inside Xander. "Maybe you don't have to. I mean we are talking amalgamizing you to someone. Maybe we can merge those two in front of you together as we are merging them into you."

"It that possible?" Harry said, wide-eyed.

Xander stopped to listen to a voice only he could here. Harry waited as Isabel talked with Xander wondering what she sounded like or even looked like.

"She says she thinks we can do it. Since it is still Halloween, tonight's spell will have the greatest strength. It should be able to do what we are asking."

"Does that mean this spell could be done on other days, but that it would not work as well?"

"It would not last as long, and it would have greater chances of failure."

As midnight neared, Xander and Hermione had illusions of their chosen characters in place over them. Xander recited the wording of the ritual while his hands pressed against the amber wall around him.

There was a flare of magic that filled the room, and both teens were left with trying to establish who they were with who they had become. It quickly became apparent that the two teens original personalities were dominate, but their new characteristics were also there.

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**AuThOr'S NoTeS: **_10/10/2019_

_Here I am again. I clearly wanted to show how the two teens made their selection. Lots of people made suggestions, but I've already had this thought out. Hopefully, some of those people will decide to take up my challenge and use their choices for amalgams. I know I'd be interested in reading them._

_Yes, I didn't tell what the choices were. Sorry about that, but the big reveal will be in the next chapter._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**By Ordinaryguy2**

**AuThOr'S NoTeS:**

_Had a hell of a life event since I last wrote. My wife and I went on a slightly late 17__th__ wedding anniversary getaway at a hotel on the bay of Tacoma. On the second night on the way back from the restaurant, my wife began to have stomach pains, which has happened every now and then. Two hours later, she had me call 911. We got to the hospital, and in less than 3 hours she was having surgery. Turns out she had 2 hernias in her intestines and some other complications. She had to stay at the hospital for a week. Scary stuff. I don't mention this for sympathy, but to remind everyone to remember that time with those you love is precious._

**November 1, 1994**

**7:30 am**

**Hogwarts, Scotland**

Neville's morning was not starting off well.

His foot was stuck in the trick step on the staircase. Again. He would have liked to have thought that the first fifteen times of getting his foot stuck would have given him an innate sense to avoid it by now. Behind Neville huddled a blonde figure in a dress slip or nightgown. Neville wasn't sure which. Meanwhile, four people were closing in on him from above and below.

In truth, Neville could say that all this started when Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire. It was later when most of the Gryffindors were in the common room. He'd been shocked as he listened to Ron accuse Harry of undermining the Goblet and thus ruining the reputation of Gryffindor. Angelina Johnson had butted into the tirade suggesting that Harry's success at getting his name to come out had probably made the rest of the Gryffindors' applications into the Tri-Wizard Tournament null and void. Several of the older Gryffindors were extremely angry at that point.

Hermione had tried to talk them down, but McCormick had hit her with a silencing spell. Neville had actually stepped in at that point to defend her. But someone behind him had followed McCormick's example and silenced him with a spell, too.

Collin, his brother Dennis, and a few other of Harry's supporters had fled to their dorm rooms. They were two few and did not have as much Gryffindor bravery. Even Fred and George had to back down once Angelina, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell turned on them. They had learned from their mother that women can be quite scary at a certain point which is why they knew to run away and board themselves in their room until seeing if the ladies were more reasonable tomorrow.

As it was, Harry never showed up. Fuming, everyone else went to bed.

Hermione had broken the silencing charm and removed the charm off of Neville, too, thanking him for his efforts, making Neville feel just a little bit proud. Neville had offered to stay with her until Harry arrived, but she sent him to bed, stating that Harry would probably respond better to her alone, but she promised to tell Harry about what Neville had done.

He'd woken early to Ron's snoring which seemed louder than normal. He'd actually been a bit grateful because being up early gave Neville a chance to get ready and get out the door before they woke up.

It was while going down the main staircase that Neville had noticed the situation of several Ravenclaw fifth year or older girls herding young Luna Lovegood around but shooting spells at her bare feet which were bleeding and seemed to have several broken toes. The crying girl had obviously had a silencing spell on her, much like Neville and Hermione had on themselves the night before.

Neville run into the group, calling out _Expelliarmus_. The witch had lost her wand cried out in dismay as her wand went flying out into the void to land far below on the stone floor, shattering.

Neville had been surprised that he had made the spell even work, foolishly stopping in his amazement.

"Bastard squib! You busted Henrietta's wand!" shrieked Marietta Edgecombe. She hit him with the _Expelliarmus _spell as well, but it landed of the landing they were on. Edgecombe went over to where Neville's wand lay on the floor and stomped on it three times to finally break it, though the effort left her with a slight limp.

Neville had tried rushing forward to save his wand, but one of the girls, he recognized her as Jacqueline Spanner, a dark-haired girl with a large wart next to her nose that she swore was from a family curse, had cast some spell that slowed down his momentum to a crawl. Neville had seen Jacqueline's snarky side at several of his family's business functions, but had never realized that she had such a mean streak.

Neville turned and glared at the last girl who seemed to be hanging back. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker, did not seem to want to be there, but she wasn't about to abandon her friends either. She was another one whose family had business dealings with the Longbottoms. They would never talk much as main subjects for her were from _Witch Weekly_ or news articles about quidditch. Neville was more interested in herbology and new discoveries. She had seemed nice, but to see her hear, cruelly attacking a nice girl like Luna.

"What are we going to do with them?" asked Jacqueline.

"Use your wand to pull out all their hairs!" demanded Henrietta.

"Let's just leave them," countered Cho. "People are going to be coming down the stairs at any moment. We can't be here. _Obliviate_ their memories and let's go."

" '_Obliviate their memories_' !" snarled Henrietta. "That squib broke my wand!"

Tapping her wand in her hand, Marietta stepped toward the defiant Neville and the worried Luna. "Oh, I can think of an appropriate punishment. Lock them in a broom closet. Remove their clothes. And of course, _obliviate_ them after adding a little love potion." She pulled out a pink vial between her fingers.

"They'd just shag in there!" snapped Henrietta. "How is that a punishment?"

Marietta smiled cruelly. "For the first part, this little love potion is also partially a fertility potion. Little Luna will become pregnant and won't be able to come back to school next year. And for the second part, we will send an anonymous letter to Snape as to where to find them."

Jacqueline gave her friend a started look. "Damn, girl, that is really devious. Is that the potion you used on that Sally-Anne bint last year?"

Marietta chuckled. "Ask me no questions, and I will tell you know lies."

Cho was look up the stairs for any intruders. "I-I think this is going too far, Marietta. Just obliviate them right here and let's go."

"The squib broke my wand!" Henrietta practically shouted.

"And that was an accident," pointed out Cho. "Besides, Marietta broke his wand in return."

Marietta grinned and sent a stinging curse at Luna, but was amused when Neville purposely stepped in the way. He didn't let out any outcry, just glared defiantly.

"More Gryffindor in him than I thought," Jacqueline commented.

"There's a reason more Gryffindor graduates died during the last war than the members of any other house," Marietta remarked, looking at Neville. "Oh, you would be perfect if I was actually into any of that S&M stuff. Maybe I will recommend you to some people I know that are trying it out. That is if Snape doesn't get you kicked out of the castle."

Henrietta grinned viciously, changing the constellation of freckles on her face. "So we are doing the potion idea?"

Marietta nodded, her cruel eyes staring straight into Neville's, ignoring Cho trying to get her attention.

"You will pay for this," insisted Neville.

Marietta snorted, a trait she hated but couldn't stop. "You won't even remember who did it to you, squib."

"I think he will," called out someone from two floors above them.

"Potter!" Marietta spat.

They could see Harry Potter standing on the upper railing of the seventh floor. At least it looked like Harry Potter, although he looked to have finally managed to do something with his awful hair. It was still strange to look at, just different.

Despite being so high up, Harry leapt out into the air, causing everyone to intake air. Even more surprising was the fact that his incredible leap carried him passed the staircase and to the far wall, which he leapt off of to another wall, coming lower and being a spectacle.

In fact, when he finally landed on the stair railing just a little above Cho, everyone jumped. Cho hurried down the stairs, afraid from the fierce look on Harry's face.

"This-this has nothing to do with you," insisted Marietta. "Go away."

That last part sounded more like a whimper than anything else. "But it looks like you are playing a game." He glanced at Neville and Luna. "Maybe you play a little to rough. Maybe you would like to play with me instead." He gave a wide grin.

Henrietta, a rabid fan of horror books, spotted Harry's extended canine teeth. "Vampire!"

"Wrong, freckle-face," Harry tutted. "Do you want to try again or just become Filch's apprentice?"

"This is not normal behavior for Potter," Cho whispered to Marietta.

"This is ridiculous," Jacqueline burst out. "Potter's just showing off with some obscure spells he learned. He needs to be shown his place." She raised her wand with its tip glowing red. Marietta matched her movements a took aim.

Harry easily leapt over the spells. A cord of silk shot from his wrist as he went over the side of the railing and he disappeared from view.

The three girls plus Cho rushed to look over the side, but saw no sign of Harry Potter anywhere.

"Spanner, with the way you talk I gotta ask-"

The Ravenclaws looked to see Harry kneeling on the opposite bannister.

"-are you Snape's love child?"

Despite the shock of seeing Harry appear again, Jacqueline still registered the insult to her parentage. She shrieked and began to fire curses at him. Henrietta ran after her, shouting encouragement, while Marietta held back with Cho.

The curses flew out from Jacqueline's wand and yet never hit their target. Instead, cracks and small holes appeared in the castle wall, several portraits cried out in dismay as they either burst out in flames or were knocked down off the walls to be destroyed far down below.

"Bloody Morgana," Marietta muttered. "No one should be able to move like that."

Behind her, Cho glanced back at Neville and Luna, motioning for them to go.

Neville was trying hard to move fast, and while the slow-moving spell had mostly left him, he couldn't go much faster than a walking pace. Luna wasn't much better with her injured feet, but she was able to tug at him to try and hurry him.

Marietta had noticed something happening behind her. "Cho, what the bloody hell?"

Aiming her wand, Marietta sent a stunning spell at Neville's back.

"_Protego_!"

The stunner bounced off the mystic shield, instead hitting a suit of armor that fell over spilling a family of dust bunnies that ran away to find a new home.

"You are being a fool, Cho!" snapped Marietta. "One word from me, and my mother will have your parents kicked out of the country along with you!"

"I don't care!" snapped Cho. "You've become a monster! And I don't want to become one, too! You're twisted desires to hurt others is getting worse and worse and I want no part of it. If I am sent back to some land that I have no memory of, then so be it! At least I will have known I tried to do what it right!"

Marietta looked down at her one-time friend. "You don't know-"

Something landed behind her, and Marietta gasped. She glanced at Cho who was staring wide-eyed behind her.

"He's behind me, isn't he," she said in a trembling whisper.

Cho gulped and nodded, not even thinking about the argument they had been having.

Marietta turned slowly. Potter stood just two feet away from her. Behind him, she could see her other two friends caught tight in some kind of web. Even their mouths were covered with webbing which is why she couldn't hear them screaming.

"I… don't suppose we could just forget about all this?" she asked.

Harry shook his head no.

Thinking she had nothing else to lose, she raised her wand to cast a spell. "Reduc-"

There had been a quick '_snikt_', and a flash of metal followed by another quick '_snikt_'.

Marietta stared in disbelief as the front of her wand fell to the floor. She let out a shriek. And a little bit of pee.

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**Later that day at Hogwarts**

"I can't believe you did that, Harry. I thought you were going to save the transformations for a big reveal later, like the First Task?" Hermione regarded Harry, trying to understand him. Or maybe she was trying to understand the new him.

"Neville and Luna needed help right away. I talked to her while Neville carried her all the way to the infirmary."

Hermione grinned. "Did he really do that? That was really… noble of him."

Harry nodded. "I was impressed, too. I think doing all that extra work with Professor Sprout is paying dividends for him. He's lost a lot of the baby fat from his cheeks and the rest of him. I think more and more girls are going to be turning their head to get a gander at him in the next couple of years."

"What about Luna?"

"She's… a strange one. Nice, very nice, but a little off." Harry scratched his head and then began trancing his new hair patterns. "She gave me a look and asked me if I was really Harry Potter. After I told her I was, she asked me who else I was."

Hermione stared at him.

Harry continued. "I told her that would be telling. She gave a little shrug and gave all of her focus to Neville."

Hermione was biting her lip as she considered something, so Harry now stared entranced as she bit her lip. "Lavender said something once. She speculated whether Luna could possibly be mad, or if she had the Sight. She finally decided that Luna was just a bit crazy."

"Were the aurors called?" Hermione asked. "Or did Dumbledore sweep it all away?"

Harry paused at this jaded response from her. It never feels good to have one's heroes be revealed to be so much less than originally regarded. "He tried. But someone had gotten word to Madame Bones of the DMLE. Once Madame Bones got her teeth into the mess, she was not letting go. Dumbledore tried to persuade her that if the girls were to have their deeds known to the entire Wizarding World, that it would mark them for life. Bones responded by saying that '_those that are never punished for their misdeeds, easily return to doing them_'."

Hermione tutted. "Great, two higher ups in the Magical Britain chain of command have very different life philosophies. That's must make for some interesting politics."

Harry chuckled. "Those two could almost make politics seem interesting to me. And, I admit, aggravating as well. But, when Neville heard that those girls might possibly get out of this with maybe a week or more of detention, he swore a magical oath, stating that the families of Edgecombe, Bergiser and Spanner were banned from all Longbottom properties and businesses from this day forth and ending any contracts with their families."

"He can do that?"

"Evidently," Harry said. "Neville said it was his right as he had taken up the Longbotttom lordship this year after his birthday. He just wasn't spreading the news around."

"How did the girls take the news?"

"They scoffed at first. Few people have been known to take Neville serious, I'm afraid. It wasn't until Dumbledore began to protest that it was too harsh of a punishment that they began to wonder what that oath had meant."

"What does that mean? I haven't really heard of such a banning before."

"Yeah, me too. Fortunately, McGonagall was there to do some explaining for everyone else. As the lord of his family, Neville is fully within his rights to end any contracts with those three families if he can prove sufficient cause. As for the banning effect, any property or business that the Longbottoms have controlling interest in or own outright will have nothing to do with those families. They cannot step inside one of the stores that the Longbottoms run or in a store that is on rented land the belongs to the Longbottoms. And it turns out that the Longbottoms have controlling interests in several businesses in the Wizarding World. It will prove devastating for the Spanners since all of their apothecary supplies are supplied by the Longbottom specialty farms. The Bergisers are also hit hard because they have plots rented from the Longbottoms in Diagon Alley, in Hogsmeade, and a few other places around England and even two in France."

"What about Edgecombe? She seems to be the ringleader."

"Her mother works for the ministry, and her father passed away. Killed while taking part of a Death Eater attack about a month before Voldie died. They, of course, claim he was under the imperius curse." He smiled when Hermione rolled her eyes. "The Longbottoms do have a controlling interest in _Witch Weekly_, though, so Marietta and her mother's subscriptions are permanently cancelled, which will include some really ticked off cousins and aunts."

Hermione snorted. "I just imagined how Lavender would react if her subscription to _Witch Weekly_ were permanently cancelled."

"I think the twins could sell tickets to watch that." The dark-haired boy shook his head in amusement. "Anyway, about that time, Neville's gran arrived. She about flipped when she heard Neville's wand was broken. And she chose to blame him for that. I had to step in and explain the entire thing to her how Neville had stepped in to protect a younger year from several students older that he himself was. And also how Marietta had chosen to break Neville's wand and what they planned to do to him and Luna."

"And Dumbledore?"

"Just thinks detentions will solve everything."

Her hand gripped into a fist. "Somehow I think their detention would not include a search thru the Forbidden Forest during the night to find something killing unicorns."

Harry smiled. "Maybe we can suggest to Hagrid that the girls could help ease Aragog's rheumatism by applying hot compresses to all eight of his legs."

"Maybe Ron could help," she added, smiling back.

They both broke into laughter.

Hermione wiped away a tear. "So how did the Dowager Longbottom take the news to Dumbledore trying to dismiss everything."

"For one, she is insisting to prosecute Marietta for what she did to her son's wand."

"You mean grandson, don't you?"

He shook his head. "Turns out Neville has been using his dad's wand all this time." He frowned. "They didn't say what happened to his dad."

Hermione, however, was focused on the first part of what he said. "But… '_the wand chooses the wizard, or witch_'; that is what Ollivander told me when I received my wand."

"He said something like that to me, too. Neville was probably having to force magic thru a wand that wasn't willing to work with him."

She gave a sad frown. "And people have been calling him a '_squib_' because of it."

"Yeah, that is not right. I kind of have an idea… but I want to run it by Xander first." He quickly changed the subject. "Madame Bones is taking Marietta in for deliberately breaking Neville's wand. Marietta howled at first, then pointed out I had broke her wand so I should be arrested. She thought she had me there, and that they wouldn't take me in since I am in the stupid contest, and thereby giving her an out, too. But then I pointed out that hers was an act of malice while I broke her wand simply defending myself from getting a _reducto_ straight to the chest at point blank range."

She eyed him questionably, but agreed to wait to hear what he wanted to run by Xander. "What about Cho Chang?"

"While she didn't stop the others from hexing Luna, or the other things they have been doing over the years, but this morning she did finally stand up against them. Turns out she was being peer pressured by Marietta and the others for a while now. It seems that the Ravenclaws have a severe pecking order. If she had turned on them, they would have attacked her mercilessly. Flitwick was there and claimed that he allowed such things to occur so everyone will strive to be at the top."

The teenage girl was horrified. "That goes against any rational psychological studies! And Professor Flitwick? I would never guess that he would allow such things to occur."

"It turns out that that is exactly how Goblins grow up, tormenting each other, trying to climb to the top, sometimes over the bodies of others. It's probably what keeps their numbers down. Flitwick claimed to have kept the students of Hogwarts from going that far though."

"Is Flitwick being removed?" she asked, her voice hardened.

Harry noted that she had not included the title of '_professor_' to the half-Goblin teacher. In fact, she hadn't corrected Harry for not calling Dumbledore '_headmaster_' either. "Don't know yet. Dumbledore said he was going to have to go over that with Flitwick later. The school review board will probably be involved."

"Are they going to do anything to help Sally-Anne? Marietta is the one responsible for her pregnancy last year due to that potion."

"You forget, the Wizarding World is stuck in the 17th century. They aren't big on the rights of others. Especially not an underage muggle-born witch."

"I hate that kind of thinking," she fumed. "There has got to be something we can do."

"How about if we ask Professor McGonagall to take Madame Longbottom-"

"It's Dowager Longbottom, Harry."

"Right, her. Anyway, the we ask that the two of them go and check on Sally-Anne to see how things are with her, and hopefully that will spark something to get them ideas on how she can complete her education."

"I suppose that could work." She glanced up at Harry. "Suppose… suppose Professor McGonagall is scheming with Dumbledore against you?"

Harry winced. He knew it had cost Hermione to doubt her favorite teacher. "Then having her check on Sally-Anne could be seen as a test. We can even have Dobby follow them to see how it goes. That is, if they decide to do it. It is still possible that they won't."

"If they don't, we will send Dobby to check on Sally-Anne," Hermione said, happy to have problem solved the issue. "We should also send a message to Madame Bones to check if Marietta and her cronies have used that potion on anyone else. Not to mention what else they have gotten away with while at Hogwarts. I'm sure there are more victims."

"I wonder if Isabel could tell us?"

Hermione thought of the sentient spirit that was the castle. "She might know some of it. Xander said that she could only focus on a few places in the castle at a time."

"Why don't we go find out? I have a question for Xander about Neville, so now sounds like a good time to head up there."

She grinned. "You just want to try out your new abilities more."

Harry grinned. "Hey, Spider-Man and Wolverine. It's an awesome combination. And while I could easily take down three Fifth Year witches, I am going to need to get some serious practice in to do well in this contest. Besides, I'm sure you want to try learning your new abilities, too, right?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment, them gave him a shy look. "Can you speak Japanese? What I read says Wolverine spent a lot of time in Japan, so he would have learned to speak it."

"Do you know Japanese?"

She lowered her head in embarrassment. "I've just started. I know the majority of the characters and can say a few phrases so far."

Harry concentrated a moment before breaking out in a grin. _I think you are one of the most beautiful beings in the world, and my life is so much better for having you in it._

Hermione regarded him coyly for a moment. Reaching out, she traced his Gryffindor tie upwards, until suddenly she pulled him forward. She grabbed a hold of him and brought their lips together. Harry had almost gone into fight mode, and possibly flight mode, but once he realized what was happening, he relaxed and kissed back with the skill he had obtained from his two avatars.

Hermione's eyes opened briefly in surprise, and slowly pulled back. _You are quite the flatterer, Harry._

Harry blinked back in surprise. "I thought you said you barely knew any Japanese?"

She gave him an embarrassed smile. "I just learned from you. It's one of the powers I gained."

He ran a finger over his lips, surprised at how tingly they were. "Um, well, I picked up several other languages from Wolverine. And a couple from Spider-Man, so if you want to try a study session some time, I am game."

She blushed and actually giggled, which embarrassed her and amused him.

"Shall we?" he said, holding out his hand.

She smiled and took it. "You know, a girl could easily fall for a someone as well-mannered as you."

"Here's hoping," he answered with a devilish grin.

She shook her head as they headed up. "I'm kind of worried about what Xander is doing. I'm not sure I like that he said he was going to make the Come-and Go Room dangerous."

Her companion gave her a wry grin. "You misunderstood. He said he was going to turn the room into the Danger Room. It's an X-Men thing. It's designed to help train in using our powers. It'll help you deal with your issues with flying, too."

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**AuThOr'S NoTeS: **_10/23/2019_

_Ok, I didn't reveal who Hermione amalgamed with on purpose, but I left a pretty big clue._

_I realize that most people will not like that Flitwick was allowing bullying to go on, but it makes sense in several ways. Ravenclaw is the house of the smartypants, which Flitwick had once been a member so it would be hard to hide bullying in his house. Luna was often bullied, had her clothing and things stolen, and was kicked out of the Ravenclaw several times to roam the halls late at night. Flitwick would have had to know and allowed it to occur. And that shatters the sweet kind image I like to have of the guy._

_Neville got to prove he is Gryffindor material in this chapter though it did cost him his wand. It does bring him closer to Luna, however. Plus, I have other plans for Neville._

_Cho had been forced to go along with her gang of thugs since she got to Hogwarts. She is breaking ties though, which is really hard at that age._

_Still hoping someone will take on my challenge to write a similar story._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**By Ordinaryguy2**

**November 1, 1994**

**Room of Requirement**

Xander laughed as he fiddled with the controls that the room had provided for him. "Oh, man, Andrew would probably sell his soul to have had a chance run this!"

On the other side of the crystal wall, Harry was swinging on a webline with one hand and slashing out with his adamantium claws, managing to shorten two of Dr. Octopus' metal tentacles. Higher in the city street, Hermione transformed more fully into her amalgam of Starfire, fly while firing starbolts at the Green Goblin and the Vulture.

Xander tisked before speaking into the microphone. "Hermione, your actions are too rigid. You need to relax and accept the natural reflexes of your avatar."

Hermione ducked another pumpkin bomb tossed at her by the Green Goblin, then swerved downward to avoid the sharp wings of the cackling Vulture who was leering at her.

"It's not as easy as you think!" she snapped.

She pulled herself up short as a dark-haired man with a large knife leap off a ledge to tackle her midair.

In the blink of an eye, Harry intercepted Kraven the Hunter, delivering a blow to the side of the villain's head even as he knocked him out of the way.

"And… pause!" Xander said, his words being transmitted into the other room, making all of the villains freeze in whatever position they were in.

Hermione's adrenalin fought against her indecision, only fueling her Tamaranean rage. "What? Why did you do that? I could have taken him!" she raged at Harry, then turned to Xander. "And you, why did you turn off the simulation? I would have had them in a minute!"

Harry stared in bewilderment. Xander, on the other hand, had an idea of what was going on. If anything, training groups of Slayers reminded him of the hot-blooded Tamaraneans, which he had learned to deal with over time.

"Hermione, transform back to your usual self and I will explain."

Hermione glowered for a moment, then transformed. It took just over a second to do so. Her hair shorted and darkened. It also became less curly, thus the large body of hair dwindled in mass. Her skin lost the orange coloring and resume a pale pink tone. Her eyes, totally green, morphed back to her chocolate irises. Her clothes, which she considered an alien bathing suit, returned to the normal Hogwarts robes she usually wore.

She felt an almost immediate drop in her mood. "What? What was that?"

Xander created a loveseat behind her, which a confused Harry helped her to sit down on. "Starfire's race is one of warriors. They are hardwired to fight. Not to mention the fact that they can be very hotheaded. That is why you were lashing out at us. As for why you froze in battle… Hermione, you are fighting Starfire's instincts to battle the enemies in front of her. Until you come to accept her more, and trust her, you will probably keep having troubles."

Hermione frowned and looked down. "So, you are saying I made the wrong choice in selecting Starfire as my avatar?"

Xander shook his head. "Not at all, my padawan. You would probably have some issues with any avatar. Starfire has an innate Tamaranean fighting spirit. It can overwhelm you if you are not careful. Maybe even if you are careful. Just be careful."

Harry nodded. "I think I can feel that with my Wolverine side," Harry nodded. "I think my Spider-Man half is helping me with that though."

Hermione twirled a segment of her hair. "I didn't think I was all that bad."

"Not this time," admitted Xander. "But that is one of the reasons we do training exercises; so we can work things out before they do become bad and overwhelm us. Trust me, I've seen it happen. Your main problem, young lady, is you want to be in control; you don't trust in the new abilities and instincts of your avatars. My uncle Rory tried out a new Nintendo game I got for Christmas. He had actually bought it for me. He bought all my video games, because my parents didn't spend their money on such things, but I digress. Rory was a lousy player, not because he wasn't trying, but because he tried too hard. He fought the controls to the game. Several times he actually broke the controls, which he would apologize for, and replace within a week. It took him a long time, but he would finally master the game. I would have gone onto several other games by then, but Rory," Xander chucked. "He was persistent until he had it all worked out."

She glanced at Harry sitting next to her. "Why isn't Harry having any troubles with his _two_ avatars?" she asked, almost accusingly.

Harry sighed. "Hermione, remember my first time on a broom? I was acting purely on instinct. I trusted the abilities of the broom. I think you need to try and trust Starfire. I know you don't like to give up control-"

"I hate giving up control!" she growled, folding her arms over her chest.

"This is more like sharing control," Harry amended, hoping the new tactic might work for her. "When I am on my broom, I work with my broom. I lean to the side to help compensate for a turn. I fold down to lower wind resistance so the broom can move faster." He turned to Xander hoping he had come up with a better analogy.

"Let's just keep practicing a few times a day," Xander stated. "Short practices," he added, when he saw her look of concern. "So as to not overwhelm you, and give you a chance to… familiarize yourself with Starfire and her abilities."

She looked relieved and annoyed over the matter. "Fine," she muttered.

"You two had better get going to lunch," Xander said, pointing to a clock inside his cell. "There are probably quite a few people who want to talk to you after your escapade with Marietta and her bunch."

Harry frowned. "We could just eat lunch here. The vast majority of them have made their opinion on me very clear already." He glanced over at Hermione he put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"True," said Xander. "I was often the butt of many back at Sunnydale High, so I can sympathize with you. However, if people keep having trouble finding you, won't they just look harder until they know where you are. And not just the annoying classmates, but the teachers and ol' Dumbles."

Hermione shared Harry's glum look. "He's right. Plus, Neville and Luna are probably being overwhelmed by people trying to learn what happened with Edgecombe. They could probably use some help."

The teen sighed, then looked up over to Xander. "About Neville…"

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**THE GREAT HALL**

Neville was well aware of all the curious eyes following him as he went to the Gryffindor table. It didn't help that Luna Lovegood was following him. The Third Year Ravenclaw had not left his side since he had carried her to the Hospital Wing that morning. He hadn't minded it; he knew that she had been through a rather traumatic experience from Edgecombe and her gang. He supposed it was rather natural for her to feel that she could feel safe around him. He wasn't looking forward to her realizing that he was probably one of the worst people to protect someone.

Seeing an open spot at the table, Neville took a seat. Luna almost immediately took the spot to his right.

"Um, are students allowed to sit at a different house table?" Neville asked.

Luna gave him a shy smile. "Hogwarts students are only required to sit at their designated house tables during the Opening Feast of the school year, holiday feasts, and the morning of the first school day so students can receive their class curriculum from their Head of House."

"Oh." Neville was uncertain of what to say, so instead scooped up some mashed potatoes onto his plate, and then offered Luna some as well.

"I like mashed potatoes," she said. "Sometimes I pretend they are pudding which is my favorite. Also, if the mashed potatoes are the right consistence, I can use them to build castles before eating them." She began to use her fork to check the consistency of the mashed potatoes.

Neville stared for a moment, then broke out in a chuckle. "I've always wanted to make a castle with mashed potatoes, but, I was afraid of what my gran would say."

"Celery can be used to make a drawbridge. And I prefer partially squished peas for the lily pads in the moat."

Neville watched for a few moments, before taking up his own fork and began shaping the mashed potatoes on his plate into something more like a stout rook tower. "I think I may need more mashed potatoes."

Luna smiled but did not take her eyes off her own plate. "Careful not to use too much; buildings of mashed potatoes won't go very high unless you incorporate magic. The problem with that is it could make the food inedible to anyone who is not Ron Weasley."

"Now what is this?" came a voice.

"Looks like a sculpting class," came an answer.

"And we weren't invited," they declared in unison.

It had taken Neville a few years to get used to the Weasley twins' antics. He knew that they were behind the retaliatory strikes against the Slytherins whenever they had targeted him. Except for Malfoy and his goons, the majority of Slytherins now considered Neville off limits. "If you want to ask how to build mashed potato castles, you will have to consult the expert here: Miss Luna Lovegood." He nodded towards the young Ravenclaw who was now using her knife and fork to plaster up a wall that seemed to retain its shape unusually well.

Both twins exchanged a grin and began to pile '_building materials_' on their plates. Fred began working on outer walls while George concentrated on trying to make a single tall tower on the middle of his plate.

Fred began talking with an awful German accent, stressing his desire to expand his territories. George responded in a bad French accent insisting that his people will resist any invasion attempts by their German neighbors.

"Hey!" Ginny said to everyone as she sat down, putting her books down hard on the table, nearly knocking Luna's castle walls down. "What's going on?"

"We're building castles," Luna answered serenely while smoothing a wall with a butter knife.

Ginny frowned. "No, I meant this morning. I heard there was a big altercation on the main stairs this morning. And _Harry_ came and rescued you," she said, not realizing how much she had exaggerated Harry's name.

The others had heard how she said his name, and all but Luna raised an eye to look at her. (_Luna had her tongue stuck out and was biting it as she carefully carved out some windows in her castle_.)

Neville frowned. He had been developing a bit of a crush on the redhead girl since last year, but her fixation on Harry was quite off-putting. Neville couldn't help but to glance over to Luna, who he actually felt closer to after this morning's adventure, despite not knowing her very well. "I think Harry had to go see the headmaster."

"That was earlier today," Ginny insisted. "Besides, I asked McGonagall, and she said the headmaster had left to deal with some things at the ministry."

"Dumbledore's probably going to see how the DMLE is going to deal with Edgecombe and her cronies," Neville responded coldly. Dumbledore was handling everything badly as far as Neville could see. The headmaster had been trying to convince Neville to not press changes against Edgecombe and her group when Neville's grandmother had stormed into the hospital wing causing her vulture-topped hat to bob up and down dangerously. All of the headmaster's efforts were mote when Neville handed his gran the smashed remains of his father's wand.

"Hmm, that still doesn't tell me where Harry is now," Ginny said, pointedly.

"I believe," Luna began with her head still down as she examined her turrets, "that with the lowering volume in the Great Hall, Harry Potter has most likely just entered. That, or there is a pandemic of wrackspurts beginning to infect the students."

Ginny turned to look hopefully toward the main entrance only to see Harry with Hermione arm in arm. Ginny's lip curled in disdain at the sight of anyone else on Harry's arm.

"Why do you even care about Harry?" Neville said, with an edge in his voice. "You were one of those that sided with Ron saying that Harry was a disgrace to Gryffindor."

Ginny turned to scowl at Neville, but noted the dark looks she was getting from her twin brothers. "I thought better of it over the night. I am sure Harry has a very good reason for putting his name into the Goblet of Fire."

"Except Harry didn't put his name into the Goblet of Fire," Luna said serenely as she make a small moat.

"Well, yeah, that's what he has to tell everyone," Ginny rationalized. "But I am sure it is all a part of his plan. He'll probably feel he can explain it to us after he wins the tournament."

"Ginny,-" began one of the twins.

"You should-"

"-really reconsider that-"

"-line of thought."

"Harry isn't-"

"-a grandstander."

Ginny, used to the twins' antics, rolled her eyes. "You have obviously never paid attention to Harry after winning a quidditch game," she said, snidely.

"Harry's excitement after a game of quidditch is because he was part of a winning team," groused Neville. He was seeing a whole new side of Ginny this year, and he wasn't liking it. The crush he had started to have for Ginny at the end of the last school year had been mostly smothered out last night when he had seen Ginny side with Ron about Harry. Talking with her now was just finalizing his resolve to have little to do with the youngest Weasley. "He loves being part of the group effort. He hates being singled out. How can you not know this?"

"Oh, please! Harry loves attention," Ginny said in exasperation. "Besides, Ron is Harry's best friend. I think my brother would know Harry best."

"Ron is no longer a friend of mine," Harry said right behind Ginny, causing the redhead to jump just a bit as she turned to look behind her.

She gaped as her eyes went over Harry. "What? Y-your hair? What did you do to your hair?" was all she could get out. The normally out-of-control hair was now stylized more like that seen on Wolverine, with a trace of brown hair mixed in from Peter Parker – not that any of the witches and wizards looking at him would know that.

Ignoring Ginny, Harry and Hermione moved past Ginny and Luna, finally sitting on the other side of Neville.

"What's going on here? Has Hogwarts started a modelling clay class?" Harry asked.

"Luna's showing us how to make castles out of food," Neville explained.

"Broccoli is best used as trees for a finishing touch," Luna advised while mixing a bluish-grey paste with a spoon in a teacup. "Blueberries, when mashed properly, make a nice glaze over the mashed potatoes. It makes the walls have a stonier-look."

Harry gave the blond a grin. "I'll give it a try. But, I think I will try for a house, instead of a castle. What about you, Hermione? Do you want to try?"

Hermione bit her lip and glanced over to the teachers' table. Realizing what she was doing, she turned back to Harry and nodded. "I think I'll make a backyard to go to your house, if that is ok with you?"

"Brilliant!" Harry beamed.

"What do you think of a koi pond?"

"I've heard of them," Harry responded, "but never seen one. I heard they are lovely."

"My grandparents think so," Hermione said. "It can be a great place to just sit and read, while glancing down at the koi swimming about in the pond. Crookshanks likes to spend hours staring down at them when we visit."

"Best make sure to protect your pond from garden gnomes," Luna stated. "They love trying to get fish from small ponds when they have the opportunity. They aren't very good at it since garden gnomes can't swim and dislike bathing, but they still try to get the fish. Or maybe they just like trying to do it. I am not sure. There doesn't seem to be a record of any Garden Gnomes actually catching a fish. Even so, everyone knows Garden Gnomes like to exaggerate their successes." She finished by placing several large sticks of broccoli around her nearly complete castle for a tree affect.

Ginny had been silently fuming, but had had enough. She got up and moved over to Harry. She glanced at Hermione who looked up at her. "Hermione, can you move over. I have to explain something to Harry, and I can't really do it from over there."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "No."

"What?"

"I said, '_no_'. After his adventure this morning, I'm not letting Harry out of my sight for the foreseeable future."

"Really?" responded one of the twins, who seemed to have accumulated a few chunks of mashed potatoes in his hair.

"That will make for an-" added the other twin, with mashed potato on his shoulder.

"-eye-opening experience when-"

"-Harry goes to the loo."

Hermione blushed, but Harry managed to shake his head at the twins' antics.

"Look, I really need to explain to Harry," Ginny said coldly, not liking Hermione opposing her, or the bushy-haired witch being so close to the wizard that was actually supposed to belong to Ginny in her opinion.

"I told you '_no_', Ginny. I know you haven't heard that a lot from anyone, but I am not leaving Harry's side. If I did, he'd probably end up battling a vampire in the secret library of Ravenclaw or something."

Luna looked up from her work in surprise. "I thought Broderick was a secret. Does everyone know about him?"

"About whom?" Neville asked.

"Does everyone know about Broderick, the vampire guarding the secret library of Rowena Ravenclaw?" she asked, wide-eyed.

Ginny had had enough. Her anger getting a hold of her, she grabbed the back of Hermione's robe and made to pull her down the bench so she could have room to sit next to Harry. "I need to talk with Harry," see insisted.

Hermione responded by reaching back, snagging a handful of Ginny's hair, and pulling hard so that Ginny's head was suddenly brought down hard against the table just between Harry and Hermione.

Ginny cried out even as Fred and George leapt to their feet.

"Oi!" the twins both exclaimed, not trying to twin speak.

Harry held out a hand to indicate they wait a moment to let the girls work it out. The twins stood poised to move to help their sister if they thought she need it.

Meanwhile, Hermione was holding Ginny pinned to the table by the redhead's hair. "First, Ginny, that was just rude. You never force someone to move like that. Second, I am not letting anyone get between my boyfriend and myself. Do you understand that?"

Despite the pain from her pulled hair and the clunk of her head on the table, Ginny heard everything Hermione had said. "B-boyfriend?"

Hermione let the redhead go, and Ginny fell back, but managed to stay on her feet.

"After the fiasco last night, Harry and I spent some time together talking. Somewhere in all that we decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend." Harry and Hermione shared a look and took each others' hand.

Ginny gaped. "But… you couldn't!"

Hermione frowned. "Why not?"

"Because… you… he…"

"I remember Ginny being more articulate, don't you Gred?" commented one of the twins, with a regrettable shake of his head.

"Undoubtedly. But aren't I Gred today? I would have sworn you were to be Forge today."

"Hmm, not sure. We should check our chart after lunch. Course, that would mean we would have to truck all the way up to the dorms."

"Or you could flip a sickle, George." Luna held out a coin to the nearest twin.

George grinned. "One day you are going to have to tell us how you do that."

"Our own mother can't tell which of us is which," Fred said with a shake of his head. "You always seem to know at a glance."

"What the hell is the matter with you two!" Ginny snapped in her harpy tone. "I was just assaulted by this mu- bookworm! And you two are just standing there like nothing happened!"

Fred turned to George. "She's right."

George nodded. "We should really sit down. It is the only polite thing to do." And both twins sat down.

"What the bloody hell!" the youngest Weasley said in outrage, staring at her two brothers.

"What's going on here!" Ron barked, while wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his school robe. He'd been sitting much farther down the table, eating with Seamus and Dean, and hadn't even registered that Harry and Hermione had come into the Great Hall until Ginny exploded. "What had you done now, Potter? Are you trying to get more attention after disgracing Gryffindor and the whole school after illegally entering into the tournament?"

Harry glanced up at Ron, giving him a look like he was somewhat surprised Ron was able to dress himself. "You're an idiot."

Then, Harry stood up on his bench, and raised his wand to the air. Then before anyone could stop him, he began to speak loudly and clearly. "I, Harry James Potter, swear upon my magic that I did not enter my name in the Goblet of Fire, nor did I ask anyone else to do so for me. It is also my belief that whoever did enter my name in the Tri-Wizarding Tournament did so with nefarious intentions towards myself. That is my statement. I so swear to it."

He glanced around at the students staring up at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Snape about to bellow some scathing remark. Deciding to beat him to the punch, Harry called out "_Expecto Patronum!_" and aimed his wand towards the Teachers' table.

A large mist poured out of Harry's wand, giving shape not only to a dashing white stag, but also to a large white wolverine and an accompanying four-foot tall white spider. All three patronuses swooped by Ron as they headed towards the Teachers' table. Ron squealed like a terrified three-year-old girl at the sight of the spider rushing near him, causing him to dive under the Gryffindor table, nearly tackling a Sixth-Year girl who was sitting in his way. The three patronuses reached the Head Table, then split, Prongs went to the left, the wolverine to the right, and the spider went straight up to the ceiling where it startled a spying Peeves, who flew away.

Once the three ethereal beings had circled the room, they turned to Harry. Harry, originally looking gob-smacked, now grinned in understanding. He nodded to the three patronuses, and they faded away.

Harry glanced up to the Head Table as if to say '_Well, what do you think of that?_'.

Somewhere applause erupted among the students and within seconds nearly all the students were clapping and jumping to their feet. The teachers looked toward the headmaster, but Albus Dumbledore was too busy trying to understand what he saw and what it might all mean. Minerva, seeing that the headmaster was too distracted, started clapping, happy to give one of her cubs the honest adulation he deserves. Hagrid and Flickwick immediately joined her, and were followed by the rest of the staff.

Harry nodded his head to the applause, then hopped down to sit with Hermione again.

"That was a patronus, wasn't it?" George asked.

"I thought you could only have one patronus, yeah?" Fred added.

"Because it's a trick!" snarled a voice as a tall older student sauntered up on Fred and George's side of the table. Cormac McLaggen had a look of disgust on his face. "Somehow, he worded the oath in a way that let him lie yet keep his magic! And the bushy haired bookworm is probably the one to come up with the wording to make it happen!" he spat viciously.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's official. You're an idiot, McLaggen. If you were not an idiot, you would have waited for the Ravenclaws and the teachers to have studied the wording as Harry's oath, which he did spontaneously by the way and with no help from me. Only then, McLaggen, after hearing the results of those taking apart Harry's oath, and only those who are clearly more intelligent than you, you would have been able to know whether you would have grounds to call out Harry's integrity. As it is now, you have knowingly placed yourself against someone who has just demonstrated that he is much more powerful than you could ever dream of becoming. And that shows to the school that you are clearly a fool of nearly the same caliber of Ron Weasley."

She turned to Harry. "We will be talking about that oath later, Harry, and I have a few chapters for you to read about magical oaths that have gone wrong before. Magical oaths are not to be given lightly."

She then returned her ire to McLaggen. "Are you still here? Go, and see if you still have any friends in Ravenclaw that will tell you the results of their examination of Harry oath so you can finally determine just how deep you stepped in the dragon dung." Unbeknownst to her, Hermione's eyes flared green for a moment, causing Cormac to step back. Then standing straight, as if to give the image he was not bothered by anything, he walked away, not realizing that several eyes followed him as he made his way over to the Ravenclaw table. It would take him a while to find someone to collaborate with since his main contacts in Ravenclaw were Marietta Edgecombe, Henrietta Bergiser and Jacqueline Spanner, all of whom were now sitting in a cell in the DMLE.

Harry's mashed potato chimney to his house had collapsed. Seeking a bit of revenge, Harry used a fork to stab it, and then brought it up and ate it.

"I think you are supposed to reform the chimney," Luna commented. "Not eat it, until later."

"Sorry, just hungry. I worked up an appetite earlier." He then bit into a broccoli, before returning to shaping his cottage. "Hermione, dear, how big should I make the library in this home?"

Hermione glanced at his work with a critical eye. "You're going to need a bigger plate."

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**AuThOr'S NoTeS: **_4/20/2020_

_Hello, everyone! I'm still here. Just got a lot going on. And a bit of writer's block and stuff. This is mostly a filler chapter, but much of the information here with be relevant in later chapters._

_Hope you are all well. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Neville stood outside as he contemplated the greenhouse. The day was bright with just a bit of overcast clouds. The runic magic of the Hogwarts' greenhouses kept the plants inside warmer and helped to amplify the sunlight shining down on them so that they can grow all year round and not be a subject to the seasons. Many of the vegetation outside of the greenhouse had already given in to the chilly grasp of November, but the vibrant green inside the greenhouse practically called to him.

He let out a contented sigh. "I made the right choice."

~* _**Late the night before**_ *~

Neville studied the notes dubiously. "I'm still not sure about this," he mumbled.

Harry let out a sigh. "Neville, we just want to help you to be more. Don't you want to be able to stand up for yourself?"

"I dunno. This makes me think I will actually be less of myself. I'd be somebody else."

Harry shook his head. "No, mate. It's more like you have more options." He sighed in frustration. "Just look through the avatars available, and see if anything seems of interest to you."

With that said, Harry stepped back, letting the other young wizard think about it.

Hermione and Harry had consulted Xander earlier, wondering if Neville could be a participant in their avatar program despite it no longer being Halloween. Xander consulted Isabel, the essence of Hogwarts, and she had told him that she could endow avatar abilities, though they would be less powerful, and would not last for too long.

It had taken a while to convince Neville; Harry had had to walk on the walls and Hermione had shot off a small starbolt at an old brazier to show their sincerity.

In the end, Neville only had one concession. He wanted Luna Lovegood to have an avatar, too.

"No, Luna, you can't be Smurfette!" insisted Hermione. "I'd sooner let you choose Emma Frost than a Smurf! It's almost as bad a choice as Applejack!"

Unfazed, Luna continued to look at her options. "Hmm, I think Daenerys Targaryen is interesting," remarked Luna.

"…why her?"

"Then I would be the Mother of Dragons, of course."

"No!" Hermione exclaimed with finality.

"Apple White?"

"No, Luna."

"Caroline Forbes?"

"Who?" Hermione leaned into look at the information Luna indicated. "She's a vampire! No way am I letting you turn yourself into a vampire!"

"That's racist!"

"No, it isn't! You can't just say that to win an argument. Now pick another choice." Hermione was looking rather frazzled.

Xander watched it all from his crystal cage with great amusement. He shared quips with Isabel whose immaterial form sat next to him, enjoying this rare treat of companionship.

"I can't tell if she is leading her on or if she is serious," Xander said, wiping away a tear.

"A bit of both I believe," Isabel remarked. "If that one does not have Fae blood in her, then I say she seems so close to them that she might as well be related."

Xander snorted. "Not sure it works that way."

"Does it matter?"

"It might to any Fae who run into her." He gave a contemplative look. "Then again, the supernatural creatures of this universe could be different from those I am used to. The Fae might just love her. And hopefully not the kind where they love to have someone for dinner. As in she'd be the dinner."

"The Fae are not so cruel on this plane. The Founders had several interactions with the Fae as my second body was constructed."

"Do you miss your first body?" Xander asked.

She considered. "There are many differences. When I was in my human body, the warm sun and wind felt wonderful against my skin. The sun and wind on the stone walls do not have the same sensation, though I can register the heat and cold on the walls. Also, before, I had mobility, could enjoy good food, draw with charcoal. And yet now that I am a castle, I do not hunger, I can feel the lives of those living within me, and have a longevity I could never had before. But if you wish to know what I miss the most, it would be to interact with others."

"Well, now that this room had been rediscovered, if we can change the wards that keeps you from talking with the students and staff, you should be able to have this room give you a body, if not physically, then at least an image of one."

"That is how it was before when the Founders still lived. Rowena and Salazar worked for years to create this room. I think it was their last great project together."

Before Xander could respond, he overheard something that sent tendrils of dread down his spine.

"Buffy Summers? That name is almost as bad as this other one - Anya Jenkins."

"I think they both sound pretty," Luna remarked. "Maybe I could amalgam both avatars to me like Harry did with the Wolverine and Spider characters."

Xander jumped to his feet with all haste. "Ye godz! I have to get over there before something worse than an apocalypse happens!"

Isabel chuckled quietly, enjoying the antics.

Meanwhile, Neville continued to peruse the choices offered to him, and was not having a good time of it. He had already rejected Aquaman, Angel and Animal Man simply because he was not comfortable with deep water, flying high in the sky or most animals. Likewise, he rejected the Human Torch because Neville did not like large fires. Speedball just reminded him of how clumsy he was. Cannonball was always crashing into things, so was on par with Speedball in Neville's opinion. Sentry was mentally unstable (_why was that even an option?_). Hank Pym, though brilliant, also had mental instability that made Neville leery of accepting him. John Constantine was into demonic activities that just gave Neville the shivers reading about them. Green Arrow and Hawkeye also relied on gracefulness for their skills to work that might be offset by Neville's clumsiness, thus putting whoever Neville would be trying to aid in even more jeopardy from the arrows he shot. Cypher could instantly translate any language, but Neville was not that much of a reader. The Flash seemed like a good idea, but with the hyper senses, Neville realized he would soon be bored beyond belief with everything moving in slow-motion around him. Havok was just too powerful, and with Neville being as clumsy as he was, he was afraid that he's accidently blast the castle to smithereens his cosmic energy plasma blasts. Booster Gold seemed more of an attention-seeking git than a hero. He didn't want to be green, so that meant no to Brainiac 5, despite how smart that would make him. As for Element Lad, his abilities made Neville think of his skill in Potions which never when well. And Thor…. It seemed ostentatious for Neville to try be a Norse deity, though he was surprised that the Thor avatar was blond instead of with red hair as depicted in myth.

"Looks like you've made some headway on clearing away what you are not interested in," Harry observed.

Neville nodded as he rejected Captain America. He would have loved to have that one for an avatar, but Neville was a British citizen, not an American.

Choosing Captain Britain had a warning on it saying that selecting this avatar might very well get him inducted into the Captain Britain Corps, and make him have to go on adventures throughout the multiverse. Neville moved that one into the discard pile.

"This is not as easy as it looks."

Harry nodded. "It took me a while to make a selection, too. How about we look in your '_maybe_' pile?"

Neville sighed and nodded. "There's only one in there right now," Neville said, feeling embarrassed. "I know this is a big thing, but so for this is the only one with which I feel comfortable.

Harry read the avatar's description. "Um…"

"I know it seems like a joke or prank," Neville said nervously. "But if you look down further, you will see he later trained in a military setting, refining his abilities in ways that no longer made him a joke."

"I can see why you are comfortable with his powers," Harry acknowledged.

"You don't mind?"

Harry smiled and shook his head. "I'm good with your choice. You just have to run it by Xander." He glanced over at where Xander was trying to have a rational conversation with Luna. "In fact, he might appreciate it if you did it now."

"No!" Xander shouted. "Princess Peach, Aurora, Cinderella and Rapunzel are not good options for you!"

"Calm down, Xander. You're shouting." Hermione was glad that Xander was stuck in the yellow, glowing amber cage that somehow brought him to this reality.

"Calm down!? We are offering her the chance to augment herself by giving her an avatar form, and she's considering becoming a Powerpuff girl?!" He pointed an accusing finger at the place Luna was keeping her avatars to consider, specifically to Bubbles of the Powerpuff girls.

"She seems nice, yet strong," Luna said airily, and without concern.

"If you are considering someone powerful, why not someone like Captain Marvel?" Hermione asked.

Luna considered for a moment. "I don't think our personalities would be very harmonious. There would be many conflicts of interest, which, as you know, could lead to a serious wrackspurt infestation."

"How about Power Girl?" Harry asked, having glanced to Luna's remaining choices.

Luna tilted her head to one side. "I am not sure I am ready to have assets that big, though her added strength would mean there would be no back pain dealing with such a load. There would also be the conflict that my father would not like it for his little girl to put her top bits in a window display like Power Girl is want to do."

Harry reddened and took a step back. Xander, having trained a couple dozen Slayers at this point, decided to wisely defer to Hermione before things got anyone out of hand.

"How about we give Luna and Hermione some more time to think about things while Neville and you tell me how his selection of an avatar is going?"

Every mumbled their agreement and the males quickly fled to where Neville's screens were.

Xander took one look at the screen, turned and asked, "Is this a joke?"

~* _**Late the night before**_ *~

Neville took another step toward one of the greenhouses when he heard someone shout in alarm.

Neville's eyes narrowed, as he wondered if it were possibly a trap. Afterall, many people see him as the weak gullible one who has been the butt of jokes around the castle for years.

Reaching out with his new powers he quickly determined that it wasn't someone setting a trap for him. Someone else had been the prey this time.

"Look like it's time to get all Gryffindor," he quietly said to himself.

There were four perpetrators and one victim. Four males and one female.

"Let's go see who is there," he said quietly to himself. He liked to come early to class. Not only did he avoid a lot of people, (especially the bullies), but he got to look around more and see how all the plants were doing. Hermione had said it was therapeutic for him. Now that he had amalgamed, he understood what she meant and agreed, though working with the myriad of plants had not fixed the problem, it just treated it.

The five people were behind Greenhouse #13, which held several of the more dangerous and exotic plants. Neville was one of three students allowed to go into that greenhouse without Professor Sprout to supervise him. The other two students were Seventh years.

Neville quietly moved along the brush that seemed extra lush under his feet. The Spikey Bush, a plant literally covered in long sharp spikes, had been losing a majority of its spikes during this time of year, and yet quickly filled in with a number of new spikes to help hide Neville's presence.

The Gryffindor peeked and saw five Slytherins. The female was Daphne Greengrass and she was trapped against the back of Greenhouse #9 with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle on one side of her. On the other side of her was a tall new potted plant that Professor Sprout had placed here out of the way of anyone. She and several other Herbology professors from around the world had discovered a new land over the summer called Xanth, and had been able to return with several plant samples that need to be near high concentrations of magic to survive. This particular tree Professor Sprout had brought back with her was called a Toilet-tree due to any flesh and blood creature that comes near it feels them in need to relieve themselves, and thus fertilizing the ground around the tree. If Daphne did have to go that way to escape Draco and his goons, she would be humiliated, a fact Draco was counting on.

In front of her, just a few feet away was a smirking Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott. In Draco's hand was two wands, one of which Neville was sure belonged to Daphne.

"-disrespect to me is going to end, Greengrass. As far as everyone in Slytherin is concerned, I rule everyone from Fifth year and down. I won't have a Fourth year in my own year putting me down before everyone in our own common room."

For her credit, Daphne regarded him with a cold glare of disdain as Draco continued to rant at her.

Grimacing, Neville considered the situation. He had no wand since it had been broken yesterday by Marietta Edgecombe. His grandmother was planning to take him to _Ollivander's_ to get his own wand on the weekend. If he used his new ability gained from the amalgamation process, he would be revealing something that others could anticipate later. But to not do something would mean allowing harm to come to Daphne who he knew.

Neville focused on his avatar and the military training he'd eventually had, especially in espionage work.

He nodded to himself began to focus on several of the plants in Greenhouse #13, though most of them seemed too dangerous to use, so he focused on Greenhouse #9, too. If Malfoy made to do anything other than scare the girl, Neville was going to have to get creative.

He'd been in deep concentration for a few minutes when Draco bellowed for his two stooges to grab Daphne and bring her over to him. Daphne, still with a cold glare edged closer to the toilet-tree while backing away from Crabbe and Goyle.

'_Okay, showtime_,' Neville thought to himself.

Suddenly, from Greenhouse #13, a Venomous Tentacula vine burst out of one of the windows, and reached out to almost grabbing distance of Greengrass, who jumped back from it which also took her farther away from the Toilet-tree. Meanwhile, a purple Bouncing Bulb the size of a doorway smashed through a window belonging to Greenhouse #9. The massive plant bulb bounced twice on the ground before rounding on Goyle, leaping upon the burly Slytherin. Goyle managed a brief shriek before being buried under the thumping plant.

Vincent Crabbe was trying to extract his wand from his pocket to try and help his best friend when a mature mandrake actually walked over through the debris. Everyone stared in shock knowing that if the mandrake were to open its mouth and scream, the sound would kill them all. But the mandrake stayed strangely silent and it carried a load of leaves over to Crabbe. When the mandrake was right in front of Vincent, the plant creature threw the greenish-brown leaves it had been carrying directly into the boy's face. Its mission done, the mandrake turned and walked back to its resting place in the good soil of the greenhouse.

Crabbe pulled off the sticky leaves, flabbergasted by what has happened, but glad it hadn't been worse. If fact, he began to chuckle.

"What in Merlin is going on here?" demanded Draco, glancing around for any other bizarre occurrences.

"Dunno," Crabbe managed between chuckles. Finally, a series of laughs burst out of him causing him to fall to his knees.

"He's been poisoned," Daphne said matter-of-factly.

"What!?" Drake snapped, incredulously.

"Those leaves he touched has a particular oil on them that he has absorbed through his skin. It causes hysteria and uncontrollable laughter that is said to be worse than the _Tickling Charm_. The leaves come from a tree called Alihotsy, also known as the Hyena Tree."

Nott glanced about nervously, especially at the Venomous Tentacula that flailed about trying to grasp anything living, but unable do to everything just out of reach. "Mandrakes aren't supposed to move around like that. The plants aren't supposed to break out of the greenhouses like that."

"Professor Sprout told students that it was not safe to go between these buildings," remarked Daphne who was carefully stepping around a madly cackling Crabbe and then eased around the Bouncing Bulb that was still leaping on a groaning Goyle. "These are possibly traps set by Professor Sprout to keep us away from something she has around here that is even more dangerous than what we are seeing here."

Both Nott and Malfoy considered that. It wouldn't be the first time the faculty at Hogwarts had set up a series of elaborate traps to protect something. During their first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had warned the students away from the third floor unless they wanted to die. That had warned away many of the students, but others saw it as a challenge. Draco had been told by Flint that he had seen a Cerberus guarding a trapdoor by their second week. Those students who had not been scared off by the Cerberus spent much of their spare time trying to learn how to get past the three-headed dog. Word is that at the end of the year, Potter, Granger and Weasley had managed to not only get passed the triple-headed giant canine, but several other traps as well. Potter and Weasley had ended up in the Infirmary, but Granger wouldn't tell anyone what had happened. Officially, Draco insisted that Potter and Weasley must have been injured trying to get passed the Cerberus, but in his heart, Draco knew the trio had somehow managed to make it all the way through, and he hated them for it.

Daphne had been walking on the path, but that would take her right to Draco, so she tried to step off the path only to be suddenly beat back by wild rice.

Theodore Nott, deciding to deal with what he knew instead of the chaos around him, went to confront the Greengrass girl.

"You fool!" she snapped as he tried grabbing her arm. "Haven't you noticed that all of these plants seem to be reacting to the aggression you boys are causing?"

Nott sneered at her postulation, and made another grab for her, causing her to back away.

Just then a massive snake rose from among the wild rice, hissing as it headed toward Theodore.

"It's a cobra-lily!" announced Draco. "But it shouldn't get that big! It's tethered to its root base! Just get away from it! It can't follow you far!"

Theo moved back, but the cobra-lily followed after him.

"How long is this thing?" Theo cried out fearfully, unsure if the plant was poisonous or not, or even how poisonous. "Draco! Shoot this thing! Curse its head off!"

Draco had already come to that conclusion and was lining up a shot. "Reducto!"

Daphne cried out in alarm. "You idiot! Watch where you are shooting! You cut my robe!"

"Who cares about you, treacherous witch!" Theo barked. He kicked away the severed head of the cobra-lily. "This is all your fault!" He moved to go after her again, but froze when he heard the sound of more hissing.

This time four serpent heads rose from among the wild rice, and all were staring at Theo.

"That's it! I am out of here!" Theo broke off down the path, running as fast as his legs would take him.

Draco glanced after Theo, but was resolved to not be defeated. "You! You did this! I don't know how you did it, but you are going to pay! Time for some severe humiliation!"

Just as he has about to cast, a series of Creepers fell upon him from overhanging trees. "What is Slytherin's name…?"

The vines tightened around the young wizard making it impossible to use his wand without hitting his shoulder.

Daphne stared in amazement at what had happened to her antagonists. She glanced around to make sure nothing was coming to attack her. She even looked up at the tall Elder tree that she was sure was longer that it had been when she had fled here. "How is this all happening?"

"Get me out this!" Draco demanded.

She gave him an incredulous look. "You chased me in here. You took my wand. You threatened me. And now you want my help?"

Daphne noticed that the plants all seemed to stop in motion, but Draco didn't seem to realize that. "If you don't get me out of here, it will be much worse for you!"

The plants were moving again. The Creepers, a magical vine that would ensnare creatures and haul them to their doom, now dragged Draco down the path. Daphne actually had to step out of the vine bundled package as it continued passed her. She let out a sigh of relief as it went by her.

"Let me go! Where are you taking… No! Not that way!"

Daphne suddenly realized that the Creepers were taking Draco to the same fate that he most likely had had for her. Daphne heard him cry out at the vines brought him into proximity of the toilet-tree. Daphne turned away as the spoiled wizard soiled himself again and again.

Noticing a movement near her feet, she froze as a cobra-lily laid down her lost wand at her feet, and then retreated back into the wild rice.

She glanced around, she now realized that some intelligent entity must be behind all of this. "Thank you," she said meekly, letting her icy personal drop for the moment. She picked her wand up and put it away. Again, she said thank you. And took the path through the plants back out to the main area.

"Hey, Daphne," spoke a male voice, making Daphne look up with alarm. She let out a small sigh of relief when she noticed it was only Neville Longbottom.

"I'm fine," she stated as she restored her impassive face.

"I just saw Nott run out of there, and I thought I heard someone cry out."

"Just some… troublemakers," she said, realizing with Neville here she couldn't just deny that anything happened. "I should let Professor Sprout know when she gets here."

"Are-are you bleeding?"

Daphne glanced down to where Draco's reducto had clipped her robe. Sure enough, there was a small trickle of blood running down her leg. The adrenaline must have kept her from noticing.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think Draco would do that. If only I'd…"

"What?" She glanced up at him. Neville was always overlooked. He was considered a squib by most people. He was browbeaten by his grandmother. He was the joke of their Potions class. And yet…

Neville was the top of their Herbology class. He excelled at it to such a level that even Professor Sprout was impressed and thought of him as a protégé. And then there is the story going around on how he'd tried to rescue that Lovegood girl.

She looked back to the place she had been trapped, and then back to Neville. "You did that? Merlin, you did!"

He managed a sheepish smile. "Uh, let's just keep this between us, ok? I'd rather people not know about this."

"How?"

"I, uh, I'm really good with plants?"

She regarded him with an evaluating eye. "I doubt Sprout could have organized half of that if she was given a month to set it up. You… you somehow did this at a moment's notice."

Neville groaned. "I'm supposed to be quiet about all this."

"How were you able to do that? You, you are considered the Gryffindor blunder, and yet you totally shamed Draco and his goons. When the rest of the castle hears of this…"

"Do they have to?"

She hadn't heard this, as she was already trying to deal with other concerns. "Draco's going to be bloody pissed, and-and he's going to partially blame me!" She looked at him with alarm. "He's going to come after me again. It's the only way he'll think he can restore any respect for himself in the school."

It was Neville's turn to consider. Daphne was a Slytherin, true; but that didn't make her evil. He'd more or less known her for years due to both of them being pure-bloods. Even so, they had hardly ever had a conversation, and there had been that one awkward dance back when they were eleven-years-olds. Things he did know were that she was one of the few to not mock him, she never let Draco put her down, and she was protective of her friend, Tracey Davis, who was a half-blood in Slytherin.

He sighed. "I think… I think I have a way so that you can protect yourself from Draco and his troll squad. I just have to run it by someone first."

"Potter?" she asked.

Neville winched, just then remembering that she was also known to be one of the brightest in their year. "Yeah, but he's a real good bloke. But there are some others I would have to run it by first. And if they say '_no_', well, I'll do everything I can to help anyway."

She raised an eyebrow. "And do you think by doing this that I will automatically become your girlfriend?"

Neville gave her a startled look. "What? No, no, nothing like that. Besides, I think someone else has kind of claimed me for herself."

Daphne half raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Hmm. That wouldn't be Lovegood, would it?"

Neville gave a sheepish look. "Um, yes. It's just all new to me. And I am not sure about a lot of things. I'm not even sure if we are officially boyfriend/girlfriend, or if we are really old enough to try be boyfriend/girlfriend. I just don't know. Do you?"

Daphne eyed him skeptically. "Are you asking me for relationship advice?"

Neville frowned. "I guess."

Daphne shook her head. She knew Neville couldn't get any parental advice from his parents, and she doubted Augusta Longbottom was very approachable about such things. "You know I am the same age as you. I've got similar issues, but the boy I like…" She sighed. "Sometimes I think my mother is right and that we are just too young to process our emotions effectively for a relationship. She may be right. I don't know. Not even sure I care." She then gave a sly grin. "But I will take you to my relationship guru. You might know her: Tracey Davis."

Neville pinked around his face. "Um, yes. Last year, Fred and George tossed her and I in a broom cupboard and sealed the door for a few hours. She, uh, she thought the only way out was for us to, uh, kiss. Um, I understand that I went into hyperventilation and woke in the Infirmary."

Daphne smirked. That had been a favorite story of Tracey's, though she had been a bit miffed not to have gotten a kiss out of the ordeal.

**AuThOr'S NoTeS: **_7__/25/2020_

_As to the concerns to Neville's selections, I made him blond like he is said to be in the book, thus his choices for an avatar were blond for an easier compatibility. Neville isn't one to stray from his comfort zone yet. He is still maturing and leery of things that are different, which is why I had him stick close to what he excelled at or felt he could not mess up. Some people grow in several ways, others choose only a narrow path that they are comfortable with._

_Who is his avatar? I thought I'd let people guess, though he did use a somewhat obscure hero who is a bit out there. Send me your guesses. I'll let you know._

_Yes, I brought in a little bit from the Xanth series, but just plants because that is what Professor Sprout would have been mostly interested in anyway. No one really needs to be familiar with Xanth for this story. Just a few magical plants will be used. So no worries. Xanth is a fantasy comedy series with tons of pun-fueled magic. For example, the Toilet-tree I used in this story is a pun based off of 'toiletry', but focused on the need for the toilet than anything else (because it is funnier that way). In the Xanth series they also have an Infant-tree, which is a tree filled with military-minded babies. It's crazy and silly but fun if you are looking for a fun book series to read. _

_I also want to recommend a new fanfiction story called '__The Ghostbusters with the Most__' by MonkeeGirl97. It's a well-done crossover between the Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice. Check it out and leave a review._


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